US Prosecutors Opened Probe of FTX Months Before Its Collapse

Long before Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX cryptocurrency empire collapsed this month, it already was on the radar of federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, led by Damian Williams, spent several months working on a sweeping examination of crypto currency platforms with US and offshore arms and had started poking into FTX’s massive exchange operations, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Damian Williams

Photographer: Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg

The focus was on compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act, the people said. Authorities have used the law, requiring financial institutions take steps to prevent money laundering and ...