The scam was largely as follows: user opens an account with FTX, user sends money to FTX bank account, screen will pop up for user with money amount which can be used for buying crypto, FTX takes a commission on every trade. So far so good. But at some point FTX has bags of user's money and cryptos in custody, which should be sitting there at all times so users can withdraw. What SBF did was founding another company (Alameda), put his ex-girlfriend "in charge" of it and then give FTX user custody money and crypto to Alameda to make risky crypto gambles. The ex-girlfriend was so bad at it that she lost fortunes. During this trial it was confirmed that FTX and Alameda were the same: all controlled and instructed by SBF. So basically SBF was grabbing FTX's treasury (user's funds) to gamble on Alameda, buy real estate in the Bahamas, give money and real estate to his parents, give donations to politicians etc. The "missing funds" that you hear about (mix of old fashioned currencies and crypto currencies) is what SBF "stole" from the FTX treasury. Alameda could not pay back FTX, FTX went bankrupt, SBF was thrown out and replaced by a caretaker CEO. This CEO has been working to get as many funds back to FTX treasury. Old fashioned money can be retrieved by seizing and selling the real estate, seize SBF parents illegal acquired property, retrieve politician's donations (Biden got the largest bag ) etc. The cryptos have been moving around and can be traced to crypto wallets. The problem is, who owns which wallet and has the keys to access them. Given SBF's overlord level of control, it is almost certain he holds most of these wallets and/or the keys.Was there actually "missing coins" where the money supposedly is?
I know there was a hacker who stole a bunch of the crypto right as they declared bankruptcy, but are there coins that went missing otherwise?
I thought the fraud was primarily paper shuffling and loans from one thing to another and any actual wallets are accounted for. There weren't coins that "went missing".
I wasn't following the original collapse very much, so I don't know.
But my impression was not that there were missing or inaccessible coins that SBF might secretly hold the keys to.
The "hacker" you mentioned was most likely literally SBF himself shifting crypto from company managed wallets to personal ones. He was one of few that knew bankruptcy was coming and that he was to be thrown out (and lose access to the company's wallets). The same time the "hacker" was active (a day before the bankruptcy), about $30 million was returned to Bahama's politicians who closed their accounts "just in time".
Lets hope that SBF still has these crypto wallets and will return funds in exchange for reduced sentencing. Who cares whether he gets 30 or 115 years in jail? For many users it might mean a life changing difference if they can get a chunk of their money back.