A group of Celsius Network borrowers wants a bankruptcy court to appoint an independent examiner to investigate the crypto-lender’s financials, but not one working for the U.S. Trustee’s office, CoinDesk.com reported. Celsius filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this summer. Its attorneys maintain that the company can recover with the aid of a still-being-built mining operation. The U.S. Trustee’s office petitioned the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York last month to let it appoint an independent examiner, saying that the company is not being transparent about its financial situation. Four Celsius borrowers – Zaryn Dentzel, Gregory Kieser, Joseph Eduardo and Michael Conlan – said in a Wednesday court filing that while an independent examiner should be appointed, this person should not come from the U.S. Trustee’s office. “The borrowers are concerned that the wide scope of the examination proposed by the U.S. Trustee will significantly delay the resolution of this case. Given the current monthly cash burn in this case, this delay will cost the estate tens of millions of dollars,” the filing said. The borrowers also said they would like the examiner’s focus to be on maximizing the funds recovered, rather than on Celsius’s past behavior. To that end, the borrowers asked the court to appoint a chapter 11 trustee. The U.S. Trustee’s effort to appoint an examiner, however, received support from state regulators probing Celsius. Vermont’s Department for Financial Regulation (DFR) boosted the U.S. Trustee’s claims on Wednesday, announcing in a filing that Celsius’s liabilities may have exceeded its assets for as long as three years, excluding the company’s CEL token holdings – which DFR alleged Celsius manipulated to bolster its balance sheet.
