New York
CNN
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Newly unsealed chapter paperwork revealed hundreds of collectors to whom FTX owes money after the once-mighty crypto trade collapsed in November.
Wall Street heavyweights together with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan had been named within the creditor listing, which incorporates companies, charities, people and different entities in a 116-page doc filed late Wednesday. FTX is now on the heart of an enormous fraud investigation.
Also included within the collectors listing are media corporations, such because the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, industrial airliners, together with American, United, Southwest and Spirit, in addition to a number of Big Tech gamers, together with Netflix, Apple and Meta.
On Thursday, attorneys for FTX filed an extra doc advising the court docket that the listing — often known as a creditor matrix — is “intended to be very broad” and “includes parties who may appear in the Debtors books and records for any number of reasons.” Being on the listing doesn’t “necessarily indicate that the party is a creditor” of FTX or its associates, they wrote.
Goldman Sachs, for one, is known as within the creditor matrix however doesn’t look like a creditor. In an announcement to CNN on Wednesday, the financial institution mentioned it had not filed a declare in opposition to FTX.
“This type of creditor matrix is prepared by the debtors for the purpose of providing notice to interested parties in a bankruptcy proceeding and is not necessarily evidence of a creditor relationship,” a spokesperson mentioned.
The doc doesn’t disclose the quantity or nature of the debt, and names of particular person collectors — principally prospects who deposited funds on FTX — stay redacted at FTX’s request. Inclusion on the creditor listing doesn’t essentially imply the events had an FTX account.
FTX is believed to have more than 1,000,000 collectors, the highest 50 of whom are collectively owed more than $3 billion.
The crypto platform was as soon as of the most well-liked crypto exchanges on the planet, fueled by superstar endorsements and high-profile partnerships with sports activities groups. It marketed itself as a beginner-friendly crypto platform, permitting prospects to deposit fiat forex and commerce it for digital belongings. But FTX got here unraveled in November as hypothesis about its stability sheet sparked investor panic. In the midst of a liquidity disaster, the corporate filed for chapter, leaving prospects in limbo.
Federal prosecutors investigating FTX say that its founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, orchestrated an enormous fraud by stealing buyer funds to cowl losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research. They additionally accuse him of utilizing stolen money to purchase luxurious actual property and contribute to US poltical campaigns.
Bankman-Fried, who was indicted in December and stays beneath home arrest at his mother and father’ California dwelling, pleaded not guilty to eight felony counts earlier this month. He has repeatedly denied committing fraud, and is scheduled to go to trial in October.
Two of his former business partners have pleaded responsible to fraud and conspiracy fees and are cooperating with prosecutors from the Southern District of New York. Both associates have implicated Bankman-Fried within the alleged crimes.