The former chief executive of one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges has denied he fled to South America after firm filed for bankruptcy.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was asked by reporters about Twitter speculation he had flown to Argentina and responded in a text message: “Nope.”
The 30-year-old, who has been removed as chief executive, said he was in the Bahamas, where he lives.
Meanwhile, the crypto exchange has become mired in further controversy after it said it had detected unauthorized transactions and analysts flagged that millions of dollars of assets had been moved from the platform in “suspicious circumstances”.
FTX filed for bankruptcy on Friday after its bigger rival Binance walked away from a proposed acquisition.
At least $1bn (£845m) worth of customer funds have vanished from the platform, according to sources.
The news agency said Mr Bankman-Fried had transferred $10bn (£8.4bn) of customer funds to his trading company, Alameda Research.