FTX, a crypto exchange that went bankrupt, has filed a lawsuit against former employees of Salameda, a company linked to FTX and its ex-CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried.
FTX claims that the former employees stole about $157.3 million from the exchange before it collapsed, according to a court document on Thursday night.
The document says that Michael Burgess, Matthew Burgess, their mother Lesley Burgess, Kevin Nguyen, Darren Wong and two companies they owned or ran had accounts on FTX.com and FTX US.
They allegedly withdrew assets fraudulently in the days before FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022.
These withdrawals are considered preferential transfers that can be reversed under the Bankruptcy Code, the document says.
The document also says that the defendants used their connections to FTX staff to get their withdrawals faster than other customers.