(Ken Silva, Headline USA) It’s not the Jeffrey Epstein client list, but it’s a start.
A coalition of media outlets is fighting in court to release the list of roughly 9 million clients of the defunct crypto firm FTX—whose founder, Sam Bankman–Fried, was the second largest Democratic donor in the 2022 election.
Earlier this year, FTX published a list of the entities to which it owes money, revealing that its creditors include the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. The list also contains several Big Tech players, including Netflix, Apple and Meta.
However, a bankruptcy judge agreed to redact the names of roughly 9 million clients who had their money stuck in the now-defunct online cryptocurrency exchange.
In an appeal filed Monday, the media organizations argued that the bankruptcy judge was contradicting decades of case precedent by keeping the 9 million depositors secret.
“Despite the long-recognized rule that ‘during a chapter 11 reorganization, a debtor’s affairs are an open book,’ … the Bankruptcy Court concluded, in effect, that cryptocurrency-related bankruptcy cases are different,” said the media outlets, which include the N.Y. Times, Bloomberg and the Financial Times.
The media outlets lamented that FTX has been operating in “extraordinary level of secrecy that has kept the press, the public, and creditors in the dark about key—and routinely public—aspects of these consequential bankruptcy proceedings.”
Covering FTX’s bankruptcy is key to understanding its November 2022 collapse, which “sent shockwaves through the crypto-industry and global financial markets,” the outlets claimed.
“The implosion exposed billions of dollars in missing funds, and sparked regulatory and criminal investigations,” they continued. “Top executives have pled guilty to federal criminal charges, and FTX’s founder and former CEO, Samuel Bankman–Fried, is set to stand trial later this year on charges ranging from securities fraud to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.”
Both FTX and its creditors have sought to keep the names of the company’s 9 million depositors secret. They have yet to file a response to the media outlets.
Meanwhile, Bankman–Fried pled not guilty on Tuesday in response to a new, superceding indictment filed against him in New York federal court this month after the Justice Department suspiciously dropped a previous campaign finance charge.
The superceding indictment relates to Bankman–Fried’s allegedly illegal political donations, although some suspect that Attorney General Merrick Garland may have been pulling strings to protect Bankman–Fried’s largely Democratic beneficiaries from getting entangled in the legal proceedings.
BREAKING: The Department of ‘Justice’ has dropped the campaign finance charge against crypto scammer Sam Bankman-Fried.
Get close with the Washington Uniparty and they will protect you every time.
Shortly after the collapse of FTX last December, Bankman-Fried was charged with… pic.twitter.com/ZmiX3u5FKy
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 27, 2023
Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan seek to show that the $100 million Bankman–Fried allegedly donated to U.S. political campaigns and causes was part of his wider-ranging fraud scheme.
The 31-year-old California man was making his first court appearance in a drab beige prison uniform since his $250 million bail was revoked 10 days ago by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan.
The judge had granted a request by prosecutors to jail him after agreeing that the fallen cryptocurrency whiz had repeatedly tried to influence witnesses against him.
His trial is set to begin Oct. 3.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
