Another option is honestly an insider who got screwed (a lot of employees had a TONNE of money on FTX) selling the keys they knew of to someone else.
Nobody will ever not be suspicious of SBF and his inner circle again after this hack.
If it were just a big collapse and it went like an ordinary bankruptcy with the creditors getting a haircut, he'd just be considered an idiot. Money mysteriously vanished? Now he's malicious as well, and any court is going to ask SBF where it went, and even if he didn't know nobody would believe it.
2) trust me when I say, no one in crypto except some very very select exchanges actually know how to make a market trading software. They think they can compete with NYSE which is large and employs such incredible talent that it still survives in a really tough industry. They’re likely closer to my grad school project, which even I can tell you, sucked absolute balls.
You're also making an assumption emcumbants are where they are because of their current merits and not the mere fact they're standing where someone stood before them.
I haven't seen any public information that tells us who it might be, this is all guess work, but it really doesn't look like a professional operation like Lazarus Group
2. Even if you ARE a skilled insider, you may have no experience with laundering coin.
3. The biggest/best coin launderer was killed (tornado?) recently, so you may have to learn everything again.
4. You may be an expert with a gun to your head in some basement in God knows where, and trying to not be shot.