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Sam Bankman-Fried's Crumbling FTX Empire Holds $1.2B Cash Reserves

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The various divisions of Sam Bankman-Fried's crumbling set of companies have $1.2 billion in cash as of Nov. 20, far below the $3.1 billion it owes its top 50 creditors, court documents show, CoinDesk.com reported. About $751 million of that is held in debtor entities and the rest, $488 million, is in non-debtor entities, according to the document, filed on Monday by FTX's proposed financial advisor, Alvarez & Marsal North America. About $514 million is unrestricted cash, $260 million is custodial and $465 million is restricted cash, which is earmarked for specific purposes like loan repayments and can't be used for general business purposes. Alameda Research has the largest reserve of cash out of the various entities at $393 million, while FTX Japan has the largest reserve of cash at $171 million of firms under the FTX silo. The Japanese crypto exchange has reportedly said it is preparing to restart withdrawals by the end of the year.

NBA Champions Golden State Warriors Are Sued over FTX Collapse

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The Golden State Warriors were sued on Monday by an FTX account holder who accused the reigning National Basketball Association champions of fraudulently promoting the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, Reuters reported. Elliott Lam, a Canadian citizen and Hong Kong resident who said he lost $750,000 in his FTX yield-bearing account, filed his proposed class-action lawsuit in San Francisco federal court. Other defendants include Sam Bankman-Fried, who founded FTX, and Caroline Ellison, who led Bankman-Fried's trading firm Alameda Research. Lam accused the defendants of falsely representing that FTX was a "viable and safe way to invest in crypto," in order to deceive consumers into investing there. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for people outside the United States with FTX yield-bearing accounts.

FTX Begins Strategic Review, Seeks Court Relief to Pay Critical Vendors

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Collapsed crypto exchange FTX said on Saturday it has launched a strategic review of its global assets and is preparing for the sale or reorganization of some businesses, Reuters reported. FTX, along with about 101 affiliated firms, also sought court relief to allow the operation of a new global cash management system and payment to its critical vendors. The exchange and its affiliates filed for bankruptcy in Delaware on Nov. 11 in one of the highest-profile crypto blowups, leaving an estimated 1 million customers and other investors facing total losses in the billions of dollars. FTX will explore sales, recapitalizations or other strategic transactions for some of its units, the company's new Chief Executive officer John Ray said in a statement. In a court filing on Saturday FTX asked for permission to pay pre-petition claims of up to $9.3 million to its critical vendors after an interim order and up to $17.5 million after the entry of the final order. The exchange said that if it fails to receive the requested court relief, it will result in "immediate and irreparable harm" to its businesses.

Collapsed FTX Owes Nearly $3.1 Billion to Top 50 Creditors

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Cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which has filed for U.S. bankruptcy court protection, said it owes its 50 biggest creditors nearly $3.1 billion, Reuters reported. The exchange owes about $1.45 billion to its top ten creditors, it said in a court filing on Saturday, without naming them. FTX and its affiliates filed for bankruptcy in Delaware on Nov. 11 in one of the highest-profile crypto blowups, leaving an estimated 1 million customers and other investors facing total losses in the billions of dollars. The crypto exchange said on Saturday it has launched a strategic review of its global assets and is preparing for the sale or reorganization of some businesses. A hearing on FTX's so-called first-day motions is set for Tuesday morning before a U.S. bankruptcy judge, according to a separate court filing.

FTX Crypto Customers Worry They Will Never See Their Money Again

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Customers of beleaguered crypto exchange FTX are losing hope they will ever see their money again, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company’s massive financial problems began spilling into the open early this month, and FTX was quick to halt withdrawals from its international unit. American customers had hoped they might be luckier, but many of them haven’t been able to get their money out either. Where the money could be — and whether it will ever arrive — is anyone’s guess. FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11. John J. Ray, the company’s new CEO who also unwound Enron, said in a court filing Thursday that “only a fraction” of FTX’s digital assets have been located and secured. Determining how much cash is left has been difficult too, according to the bankruptcy filings, since FTX didn’t keep an accurate list of its bank accounts. FTX said in a statement Saturday that it is working “to maximize recoverable value for stakeholders.” “I respectfully ask all of our employees, vendors, customers, regulators and government stakeholders to be patient with us as we put in place the arrangements that corporate governance failures at FTX prevented us from putting in place prior to filing our Chapter 11 cases,” Mr. Ray said in the statement.

Bankrupt Crypto Lender Celsius Was Lax With Custody, Examiner Finds

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A new report by the examiner of bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network details shortfalls in controls and operations at two of the company’s product offerings related to digital assets it held in custody for customers, raising issues of whether and how these users can get reimbursed, Bloomberg News reported. The programs, Custody and Withhold, were similar, and allowed users to keep their digital coins in the lender while supposedly maintaining ownership of them. The programs’ users have been claiming that they shouldn’t be lumped together with other unsecured creditors and should be reimbursed in full. In her interim report, examiner Shoba Pillay found that Celsius launched the Custody program “without sufficient accounting and operational controls or technical infrastructure.” As a result, Custody wallets were overfunded through June 10, but then became underfunded by $50.5 million — a 24% shortfall — by June 24. With the Withhold program, “no effort was made to segregate or separately identify any assets” associated with the accounts, the report said. “As a result, customers now face uncertainty regarding which assets, if any, belonged to them as of the bankruptcy filing,” Pillay wrote in the report. The findings may complicate customers’ efforts at reimbursement.

Judge Gives Norwich Diocese a Sixth Extension to File Bankruptcy Plan

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For the sixth time, federal bankruptcy Judge James Tancredi has extended the deadline for the Diocese of Norwich to file a bankruptcy plan to Jan. 11, 2023, The Day reported. Meanwhile, the possible funds available to pay victims may be tens of millions of dollars less, as the diocese’s insurer has said it will only pay $2.5 million of the available $21 million in coverage. In its motion seeking the sixth extension, diocesan attorneys wrote that it continues to make progress on a plan that is acceptable to its 170 creditors, including 142 people who say they were sexually assaulted by diocesan priests and clergy. The latest deadline was set to expire Friday. Federal bankruptcy court filings show that the Diocese of Norwich has spent more than $2.9 million on legal and other fees since it filed for bankruptcy in July of 2021.The total was for expenditures through Oct. 17. The total amount of legal fees spent by the diocese on the bankruptcy though are about $5 million as it had expended $980,000 in the months leading up to bankruptcy and another $800,000 from Oct. 17 to Nov. 15. In all, there have been more than 900 legal filings in the case.

Judge Approves $10 Million in Real Estate Sales in New Orleans Archdiocese Bankruptcy Case

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A federal bankruptcy court judge has approved the sale of two downtown property by the Archdiocese of New Orleans, which filed for chapter 11 protection more than two years ago in the face of mounting lawsuits related to past child sex abuse, NOLA.com reported. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill approved the sales last week in advance of a hearing on the matter that had been scheduled for Nov. 17 but was canceled after neither side objected to the pending deals. Judge Grabill’s order means that the archdiocese can execute two purchase agreements with separate buyers it has lined up to acquire adjacent properties on the edge of the Central Business District. One property is the 12-story office building at 1000 Howard Ave., which is under contract to a Lafayette developer. The other is the parking lot at 1032 and 1042 Loyola Avenue, which is under contract to a local investor group. Together, the deals will generate nearly $10 million for the archdiocese, which, until now, has sold just one other property since filing bankruptcy — the former St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School in Kenner, which fetched $1.9 million in 2020.

FTX Disclosed Related-Party Transactions but Didn’t Name Names

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The saga of Sam Bankman-Fried‘s bankrupt crypto empire isn’t just about collapsing tokens, missing billions and sunny offshore tax havens; there were also red flags in its books, the Wall Street Journal reported. At the core of FTX Trading Ltd.’s financial statements was a series of related-party transactions. But the company didn’t say who those parties were. On its balance sheet, the largest asset as of Dec. 31 was a “related party receivable” valued at $1.2 billion, or 44% of its assets. Its liabilities included a $362 million “related party payable.” FTX Trading last year paid $250 million, or 25% of its revenue, to an unnamed related party for “software royalties,” as previously reported by The Wall Street Journal, which viewed the documents. As a closely held company, FTX Trading didn’t disclose its financial statements publicly, though they were shared with investors. In a footnote to the financial statements, the company said its “primary shareholder is also the primary shareholder of several related entities which do business with the company.” It didn’t say who the related parties were for any specific transaction it disclosed.