FTX and its sister companies may have more than 1 million creditors worldwide, the company said in a bankruptcy court filing Monday.
As part of the filing, more than 100 dockets for FTX and its many sister companies, including crypto trading shop Alameda Research, FTX submitted motions to jointly administer the group of entities rather than treat each bankruptcy individually. The company also requested that it be allowed to create a list of the top 50 creditors for the group of companies, rather than a list of the top 20 creditors for each company.
New CEO John J. Ray III is working with legal, turnaround, cybersecurity and forensic investigative advisers to secure customer and debtor assets during the bankruptcy process, according to the filing.
Ray appointed a new slate of directors at each of the main companies within FTX to guide them through Chapter 11, including Joseph J. Farnan Jr., a former U.S. district judge in Delaware, at FTX Trading; North Country Capital founder Matthew A. Doheny at FTX Trading; Matthew R. Rosenberg, whose background is unknown by Banking Dive, at Alameda Research LLC; and Rishi Jain, managing director at private equity consultant Accordion, at Clifton Bay Investments.
Ray, who played a part in the winding down of Enron in 2007, took the helm at FTX when former billionaire founder Sam Bankman-Fried stepped down Friday, the same day his companies filed for bankruptcy and just days after he swore on Twitter that FTX was “fine.”
It was a swift downfall for FTX and Bankman-Fried, with “unprecedented” events befalling the company over the week, the bankruptcy filing said.
“Barely more than a week ago, FTX, led by its co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, was regarded as one of the most respected and innovative companies in the crypto industry. The Debtors operated the world's second largest cryptocurrency exchange (through its FTX.us and FTX.com platforms), operated one of the largest market-makers in digital assets (through Alameda Research LLC and its affiliates), and conducted diverse private investment and other businesses,” the filing reads.
FTX has been in talks with various regulators, including the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and “dozens of Federal, state and international regulatory agencies,” according to the filing.
The SEC, CFTC and Justice Department are each investigating FTX, and the SEC probe appears to predate the collapse. The Royal Bahamas Police Force is also investigating FTX, which is headquartered in that country.
