高点套现、躲过破产，FTX覆灭的最大受益者竟是一个柔术冠军

Original source: Wall Street Journal

Original text compiled by: BitpushNews Mary Liu

The collapse of Sam Bankman-Frieds (SBF) crypto empire FTX caused billions of dollars to evaporate, leaving many investors in tears, but the one who managed to escape and enjoy huge wealth was a jiu-jitsu champion from Kazakhstan –Rashit Makhat.

A few months before FTX collapsed, Rashit Makhat received nearly $500 million in compensation for selling a majority of his stake in Bitcoin mining company Genesis Digital Assets to SBFs hedge fund. Lawyers representing Makhat in London said he still owns the proceeds.

This transaction at the peak of the market made Makhat one of the largest personal beneficiaries. U.S. prosecutors described it at trial as Bankman-Frieds crazy buy, buy, buy behavior after stealing funds from FTX customers.

During the prosecution, prosecutors used details such as bank account data and insider testimony to show how much of the $8 billion in customer funds flowed into startups and other investments. SBF was convicted and detained pending sentencing.

The Genesis Digital trade in early 2022 was one of the largest focused on by prosecutors, who showed jurors a chart showing how more than $1 billion was transferred from clients to accounts owned by the Bankman-Fried hedge fund , and then transferred into Genesis Digital stock. Prosecutors did not mention Makhat, who has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Prosecutors also singled out transactions led by Bankman-Fried, including the purchase of property in the Bahamas and a $1.2 billion acquisition of rival cryptocurrency exchange Binance, a former shareholder of FTX.

The new management formed after FTX went bankrupt is fighting in court to recover money from some of SBFs recipients, including SBFs parents and a Hollywood agent-turned-venture capitalist. To win back money, attorneys often need to prove that the recipient was overpaid before the bankruptcy. Bankman-Frieds parents and attorneys dismissed FTXs claims in court.

Recovering all client funds is no easy task. Startups that receive the majority of funding are likely to use the funds for their own operations. FTX also could sell shares Bankman-Fried bought in startups, but the value of many of those stocks, including Genesis Digital, plummeted as cryptocurrency prices fell.

Documents filed by attorneys and consultants in the early 2023 bankruptcy case said FTXs new managers were investigating Genesis Digital, similar to what they used to describe its handling of other large FTX assets.

A spokesman for FTX management declined to comment.

All told, Bankman-Frieds hedge fund Alameda Research invested a total of $1.15 billion in Genesis Digital between mid-2021 and mid-2022, the largest investment to date in its more than $4 billion portfolio of startups and venture capital investments an investment.

A spokesperson for Genesis Digital said the deal with Bankman-Fried was an outright secondary sale of the companys stock - which is common across many industries during strong markets.

Makhats lawyers said the sale was conducted in compliance with all applicable market rules and regulations and that both parties to the transaction had retained reputable law firms. They said his shares were acquired along with a number of other company founders.

Makhat, 47, does not work for Genesis Digital, his lawyer at London law firm Mishcon de Reya said. He runs a venture capital firm in Dubai and posts on LinkedIn about the prospects of artificial intelligence.

In an interview with a Kazakh journalist in 2022, Makhat said that early in his career he worked for a number of small Kazakh companies while also playing sports.

In 2011, he won the 200-pound world championship at the 2011 World Jiu-Jitsu Championships in Lima, Peru.

In an interview with a Kazakh journalist in 2022, Makhat said that Mkhat began entering the encryption industry around 2016, when two German Bitcoin mining companies were looking for partners in Kazakhstan. Bitcoin mining requires massive amounts of energy-intensive computing power, and Kazakhstan’s coal-fired electricity is cheap. Makhat and two other Kazakhstani entrepreneurs saw an opportunity and joined forces with the German duo.

Makhat told reporters at the time: With cryptocurrency, I dont need a bank, I dont need an intermediary, I can trade directly with you.

Rashit Makhat (top) won the 200-pound world title at the 2011 World Jiu-Jitsu Championships in Lima, Peru. He said he took up sports for a career.

The new company, then called Powerry, looked for sources of electricity and began mining, said Yermek Alimov, a former business partner at Genesis Digital.

Alimov, who previously worked with Makhat on a gold mining venture, claimed in a UK lawsuit against Genesis Digital, Makhat and two other co-founders that he should own a stake in the company because he helped it obtain electricity, It cited text messages and other evidence of communications.

A spokesman for Genesis Digital, where the other two co-founders still work, said Alimovs claims that he was owed money were false and said his only relationship with the company was the sale and renovation of a power station.

Makhats lawyer said the court has not determined whether it has jurisdiction to hear the claim and therefore the defendants have not yet entered a defense to Alimovs claim.

When Bitcoin prices soared in 2021, Bankman-Fried committed an initial investment of $100 million to Genesis Digital and later joined the companys board of directors. Anthony Scaramuccis SkyBridge Capital, venture capital fund Paradigm and others also invested in the company.

The SBF flew on a private jet in December 2021 to meet with the President of Kazakhstan, who held a roundtable discussion with a group of foreign investors holding shares in Kazakhstan companies.

SBF (third from left) meets with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (fourth from right) in December 2021

Soon after, Bankman-Frieds Alameda bought most of Makhats Genesis stock and some from another co-founder for $80 million.

Makhat received more than $470 million in shares from Alameda in the deal, according to Cyprus company filings and a person familiar with the matter. In mid-2022, Bankman-Fried invested another $500 million directly in the company. The deal values ​​Genesis Digital at approximately $5 billion.

Alameda is a veteran of Kazakh business circles. He has served on the boards of several high-profile companies, including one of the countrys largest banks, the large state-owned defense company Kazakh Engineering Company and telecommunications company Kcell, as well as on the advisory board of payments newcomer Kaspi.

Kazakhstan securities filings and information on the companys website said Makhat worked for a company owned by Kairat Satybaldy, a nephew of former Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, and represented Kairat Satybaldy at another companys shareholder meeting. Kairat Satybaldy, a well-known figure in Kazakh business circles, is currently serving a six-year sentence for embezzlement of state assets. Kazakh officials said this month that about $1.5 billion in assets linked to Satybaldy had been returned to the government since his arrest in March 2022.

Biographical information released by two companies where Makhat serves as a director shows that from 2006 to 2009, he served as an advisor to the chairman of the management committee of Dunie Corp., a small company 70% owned by Satybaldy.

The material appears on Kazakhstan Engineerings archived website as well as in publicly traded Kazkommertsbanks 2015 and 2016 annual reports, April 2016 board meeting minutes and press releases. Information on the website of a third company, Real Estate Management, shows he once worked for Dunie.

Makhats lawyers said the biographical materials references to Makhats role at Dunie were false and that he did not work for the company.

Our client has not and has never worked for Mr. Satybaldy, either as a consultant or in any other capacity for Dunie or any other company, they said.

Satybaldy said through his lawyer that he did not have any advisers at Dunie and that he and Makhat were friends but Makhat did not work for him.

Rashit Makhat (left) and Kairat Satybaldy had lunch with their wives in 2018

According to Kaspis board meeting minutes, Makhat served as Satybaldys representative at the 2017 Kaspi shareholder meeting. Satybaldy, one of Kaspis largest shareholders, gave Makhat a power of attorney so he could vote on his behalf, according to board meeting minutes.

Makhats lawyer said Satybaldy was unable to attend in person, so he asked Makhat - a member of Kaspis advisory board - to attend the meeting as his attorney. They said the power was limited to that purpose and no general power of attorney was granted to Makhat. Satybaldy also granted the same authority to others in other Kaspi meetings.

In his testimony, SBF stated that he invested in Genesis Digital because of the companys ability to produce Bitcoin at a low cost. He said it could be a good investment if properly hedged against falling Bitcoin prices, although FTX did not do so.

Since Bankman-Fried’s investment, Genesis has expanded into the United States, opening massive new data centers for Bitcoin mining in Texas and South Carolina.

The company has told investors it intends to conduct an initial public offering in the United States, according to people familiar with the plans.

The companys CEO and co-founder Marco Streng resigned from the board of directors last fall, and another co-founder, Andrey Kim, took over as CEO. Previously, the companys chairman and co-founder Abdumalik Mirakhmedov left the board of directors in 2022 and currently serves as executive chairman, and his son took over his position.

Genesis Digitals value has plummeted, according to SkyBridge Capital. In September, the company estimated that the value of its Genesis Digital stake had fallen 86% since its peak in early 2022.

Bitcoin prices have risen more than 50% since September, boosting the share prices of some publicly traded Bitcoin miners, but are still less than half of their all-time peak.