US Probes FTX Empire Over Handling of Client Funds and Lending

US financial regulators are investigating whether beleaguered crypto-exchange FTX.com properly handled customer funds, as well as its relationship with other parts of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission relate to the liquidity crisis at the trading platform that led to a planned buyout of its non-US operations by rival exchange Binance Holdings, according to the people. Regulators are also looking into the platform’s relationship with FTX.com’s American counterpart FTX US and Bankman-Fried’s trading house Alameda Research. The SEC’s inquiry began months ago as a probe into FTX US and its crypto-lending activities, said two of the people.