- Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX Group paid it for the Swiss company DAAG
- FTX Europe got almost $100M to acquire K-DNA for around $2M
Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX’s attorneys have requested a bankruptcy court in Delaware award recovery of more than $323.5 million from FTX Europe, court documents show, cited by CoinDesk.
Attorneys on behalf of FTX and Alameda Research-owned Maclaurin Investments (the hedge fund arm of FTX, also bankrupt) requested the court order the reverse transfer of funds from the leadership of FTX Europe – Patrick Gruhn, Robin Matzke, Brandon Williams, and Lorem Ipsum UG.
FTX paid the money for the Swiss DAAG
Sam Bankman-Fried and his FTX Group paid this amount to acquire the Swiss company DAAG, which would eventually come to be known as FTX Europe. The attorneys claim the company had no intellectual property and only limited business property. The documents state:
FTX Insiders pursued the DAAG acquisition because they believed DAAG’s founders could provide access to European regulators that would allow FTX to obtain the necessary licenses for activities in the European Economic Area, and because they wanted to benefit Williams and Matzke, who had preexisting relationships with Bankman-Fried.
According to the attorneys, FTX Europe got excessive payouts of almost $100 million to acquire K-DNA, which it did, but only for around $2 million. This entity was licensed to operate in the European Economic Area and later became part of FTX Europe.
The attorneys also requested the court suspend payment of any outstanding amount left for FTX Europe. More than $50 million remains to be paid of the $376 million deal.
The attorneys claim they cannot sell FTX Europe because it has no value as an asset. In April, a Swiss court approved FTX’s request to probe the sale. FTX Europe had initiated the process of letting customers withdraw locked funds a month earlier.
