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What he's really saying is, these guys had no back office accounting operation. Usually, in a bankruptcy of a financial enterprise, there's a general ledger of transactions to look at. Some may be fraudulent, hidden amongst the legit ones. FTX does not seem to have had that. Much of the history is missing. So it will have to be reconstructed, often from the other side of the transaction. Banks will be asked (ordered) to provide their transaction history for all relevant accounts. There will be heavy analysis of the blockchain, which is less anonymous than many people in crypto think. Whatever records FTX has will be analyzed. People identified as having dealt with FTX will be subpoenaed for their records.
Gradually, cells on spreadsheets saying "On DATE transferred AMOUNT denominated in COIN to UNKNOWN" will have UNKNOWN filled in. This is forensic accounting. In bankruptcy, that happens in public. Over time, the PACER filings for the case will fill up
with details of where the money went. Some will be trackable, some won't. A lot of effort will go into finding out where big amounts went. The numbers are big enough to justify the effort. Then come clawbacks, arrest, trials, civil litigation... A huge pain for everyone involved, but if you screw up at the 10-digit level, it gets done. |