[Dirty Bubble Media] Several days ago, the Wall Street Journal published in-depth look at the relationship between Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and a group of Kazakhstani businessmen. SBF invested over $1 billion into Genesis Digital Assets, a Cyprus-based Bitcoin mining firm with the majority of its operations based in Kazakhstan. As part of that investment, FTX paid $550 million for shares in the company in early 2022. Some 70% of that was paid to one Rashit Makhat, a Kazakhstani oligarch with close ties to the ruling regime. SBF even met with the president of Kazakhstan as part of a mission to sell the company on crypto.It turns out that Genesis Digital Assets is not the only link Mr. Bankman-Fried and FTX established with well-connected oligarchs. Another example is the now-defunct crypto derivatives exchange ZUBR.io. In 2021, it was announced that FTX had purchased the Gibraltar-registered ZUBR exchange for $11 million. FTX subsequently used ZUBR as a vehicle to obtain a derivatives exchange license in Gibraltar.
DBM - A forgotten banking scandal suggests FTX is the tip of the crypto iceberg