A former US Secret Service agent who specializes in probing financial cybercrime supported anonymity for creditors in the FTX bankruptcy because of risks from the criminals who stalk the cryptocurrency sector, Bloomberg News reported. Identifying customers of the fallen crypto exchange “imposes a severe and unusual risk of identity theft, asset theft, personal attack, and further online victimization,” Jeremy A. Sheridan, managing director in the blockchain and digital assets practice of FTI Consulting Inc., said in a filing on Thursday. FTI Consulting is the financial adviser for the official committee of unsecured creditors in the five-month-old FTX bankruptcy. Early in the case a judge agreed to keep the names of the 50 biggest unsecured creditors secret. The US Bankruptcy Code normally requires the names be filed in public documents. The U.S. Trustee and several media companies, including Bloomberg News, unsuccessfully fought to have the names of FTX customers made public earlier this year, arguing that their names would be listed if they were creditors in any other bankruptcy case. Naming customers with bigger crypto holdings is like “placing a target on their back and facilitating fraudulent schemes by malefactors,” Sheridan said.
