The FTX Bankruptcy - Consolidated Thread

[Honoria]

Judge: Mysterious People Who Bailed Out Disgraced FTX Boss Sam Bankman-Fried Should Be Named


ALANA MASTRANGELO
31 Jan 2023

A U.S. judge said on Monday that the names of the two people who bailed disgraced FTX CEO and Democrat super donor Sam Bankman-Fried out of jail should be made public. The move comes after Bankman-Fried’s lawyers tried to keep the names of those who paid his bail anonymous.



While U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has ruled in favor of disclosing the names, he has put his ruling on hold pending an expected appeal, according to a report by Reuters.





FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (second on left) is led away in handcuffs by officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force in Nassau, Bahamas, on December 13, 2022. (MARIO DUNCANSON/AFP via Getty Images)



The judge said that the public’s “weak” right to know who bailed the disgraced cryptocurrency exchange founder out of jail outweighed Bankman-Fried’s arguments for confidentiality, as well as the claim that the safety of his guarantors would be in jeopardy.



Judge Kaplan also reportedly said that the names will be confidential until at least February 7, as “the question presented here is novel and an appeal is likely.”



Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried has been at his parents’ house in California, after pleading not guilty to fraud charges. The disgraced FTX founder’s parents, who are both professors at Stanford Law School, co-signed a $250 million bond for their indicted 30-year-old son.



In addition to Bankman-Fried’s parents, his bail was also signed by two other guarantors, whose names have not yet been revealed. They signed a $500,000, as well as a $200,000 bond.


“The amounts of the individual bonds — $500,000 and $200,000 — do not suggest that the non-parental sureties are persons of great wealth or likely to attract attention of the types and volume of that to which defendant’s parents appear to have been subjected,” Judge Kaplan said.



The disgraced FTX founder and Democrat super donor, who pleaded not guilty in a New York court earlier this month, had previously asked the judge to keep his bail guarantors a secret.



A few weeks ago, it was revealed that Bankman-Fried had a “secret” $65 billion back door into FTX clients’ funds, attorneys said, adding that he had ordered a co-founder to insert a secret back door into FTX code to funnel clients’ money into his hedge fund.



With that money, Bankman-Fried “bought planes, houses, threw parties, made political donations,” attorneys claim.

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[Midnight]

Judge Rules Mysterious People Who Bailed Out FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried from Jail Will Be Exposed

by Kari Donovan

February 1, 2023




News media sources who want to expose the mysterious people who bailed FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried out of jail are one step closer to getting their big story after a US judge ruled in their favor to get information that someone is trying to keep hidden.



News of the ruling comes at the same time there is an elevated understanding of the corrupt nature of Bankman-Fried’s work with his failed cryptocurrency agency, according to Independent Media:



“A FILING IN FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings is shedding light on the true extent of the crypto-trading powerhouse’s influence-peddling operation. Last week, FTX filed its creditor matrix, a document that lists former vendors and investors to the company,” the Intercept reported, adding:



“The list includes nearly a dozen public relations experts — specialists who generate positive spin in the media on behalf of clients — as well as political consultants, think tanks, and trade groups.



Sometimes, the money went directly to political operations; Majority Forward, a dark-money group designed to elect Senate Democrats, received cash. In some cases, the hired guns, such as PR firms, were paid directly for their services. In others, the groups that received donations maintain that they are independent, but had interests aligned with FTX.



The filing, for instance, listed a donation to the Center for a New American Security, a prominent national security-focused think tank in Washington, D.C., that has worked to shape crypto regulations.”



The move by the judge to grant the news media request to find out who bailed the FTX kid out of prison, comes after previously keeping the names redacted.



SBF’s attorney tried to keep the names anonymous after the donors signed a $500,000 and $200,000 bond to spring him from jail.



SBF’s parents also co-signed a $250 million bond for their indicted son.



The judge ruled the names should be released by February 7th, acknowledging that his ruling is likely to be appealed.



Breitbart.com reported with more details:



A U.S. judge said on Monday that the names of the two people who bailed disgraced FTX CEO and Democrat super donor Sam Bankman-Fried out of jail should be made public. The move comes after Bankman-Fried’s lawyers tried to keep the names of those who paid his bail anonymous.



While U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has ruled in favor of disclosing the names, he has put his ruling on hold pending an expected appeal, according to a report by Reuters.



The judge said that the public’s “weak” right to know who bailed the disgraced cryptocurrency exchange founder out of jail outweighed Bankman-Fried’s arguments for confidentiality, as well as the claim that the safety of his guarantors would be in jeopardy.



Judge Kaplan also reportedly said that the names will be confidential until at least February 7, as “the question presented here is novel and an appeal is likely.”



The two people who helped former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried with his $250 million bail bond could have their identities revealed as soon as this month.



According to the Jan. 30 filing, Kaplan granted the joint petition from eight media outlets to unseal the names of the two individuals, “for the limited purpose of asserting the public’s claimed right of access” to the identities. He noted, however, that there was not much weight in favor of either side of the argument.



Bankman-Fried was released from custody in December after two unknown people signed on as sureties for the $250 million bond along with Bankman-Fried’s parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried.



Eight major media companies — including Bloomberg, the Financial Times and Reuters — demanded public disclosure of the two individuals responsible for guaranteeing the bond in a Jan. 12 letter addressed to District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan.



Attorneys from Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, acting on behalf of the media giants, insist that “the public’s right to know Bankman-Fried’s guarantors outweighed their privacy and safety rights.”



Bankman-Fried’s lawyers have, however, continued to argue that their identities should be kept a secret, as his parents have already been the subject of threats and the FTX founder and those linked to him face serious security risks.



In his ruling, Kaplan said he has “no reason” to doubt threats had occurred but was yet to see “evidence to that effect,” adding:



“But it does not follow that the non-parental sureties would face similar threats and harassment.”

Kaplan further argued that Bankman-Fried’s parents faced intense scrutiny due to their close relationship with their son, and his father’s employment at FTX for a year prior to the exchange’s collapse.



“Thus, the defendant’s claim that the non-parental sureties would face similar intrusions is speculative and only entitled to modest weight,” he said.



“Moreover, the information sought, ie, the names of the bail sureties, traditionally is public information,” Kaplan added.



In a Jan. 19 court filing, the lawyers for the former FTX CEO claimed that three men drove a car into the metal barricade outside Bankman-Fried’s parents’ home, where he is under house arrest.



Conveniently for the drama of the story, the unidentified trio was reportedly able to drive away before security guards could record the car’s license plate.


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[schwartzie]

Sam Bankman-Fried Paid Himself Over $2 BILLION and His Team Another $1 BILLION Before Filing for Bankruptcy

By Joe Hoft
Mar. 17, 2023 5:45 pm






Sam Bankman-Fried paid himself and his team over $3 Billion and yet he still runs free.



Today in the Southern District of New York in the bankruptcy of FTX it was learned that SBF and his friends transferred over $3 billion to themselves before the company filed for bankruptcy.



Market Insider reported:



FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried and five people in his inner circle took more than $3.2 billion from hedge fund Alameda Research and other parts of his crypto empire, according to its new bosses.



Former CEO Bankman-Fried and the FTX employees transferred the money to their personal accounts under the label “payments and loans”, FTX’s new management said in Wednesday filings to bankruptcy court.



Most of the funds came from Alameda, FTX’s sister trading arm, and were transferred before the crypto exchange collapsed in November, they said.



Bankman-Fried picked up about $2.2 billion, while ex-engineer Nishad Singh, FTX cofounder Gary Wang and ex-Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison received $587 million, $246 million and $6 million, respectively, the filings said.



Bob Bishop reported on Twitter:

Below is the entire filing from today:



FTX Financial Report 3172023 by Jim Hoft on Scribd


And to think this guy is in his parent’s home and not in jail. The US legal system is a joke.



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[maybetoday]

Sam Bankman-Fried Charged with Bribing China with $40 Million to Unfreeze Assets – SBF Now Linked to Scandals Involving Ukraine, China and the Democrats

By Joe Hoft
Mar. 28, 2023 2:30 pm





From the cover of Forbes to bribing China with $40 million, FTX’s former CEO has done it all.



The AP reported earlier today on an additional charge against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (FTX).



FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with directing $40 million in bribes to one or more Chinese officials to unfreeze assets relating to his cryptocurrency business in a newly rewritten indictment unsealed Tuesday.



The charge of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act raises to 13 the number of charges Bankman-Fried faces after he was arrested in the Bahamas in December and brought to the United States soon afterward. The indictment was returned on Monday.



FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, when it ran out of money after the cryptocurrency equivalent of a bank run. He has remained free on a $250 million personal recognizance bond that lets him stay with his parents in Palo Alto, California.



He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he cheated investors out of billions of dollars before his business collapsed.



SBF still stays at home on home arrest with his parents near the Stanford campus where they live. The Clinton judge allowed SBF to stay at home after he was accused of one of the largest money frauds in US history.


TGP reported previously that FTX was involved in transactions in Ukraine.


Bankman-Fried was, of course, arrested and extradited from the Bahamas after the FTX scandal. The former crypto-CEO was the second largest donator to the Democratic Party while his associate was one of the strongest for the GOP. Elon Musk at one pointed tweeted “His actual support of the Dem elections is probably over $1B. The money went somewhere, so where did it go?”



FTX looked like a large money laundering operation for some time. Maybe China wanted their piece.

More at link