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The ongoing mediation between the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany and attorneys for hundreds of plaintiffs who filed sexual abuse claims under the Child Victims Act is teetering on collapse, the Albany Times Union reported. One of two mediators overseeing the negotiations, which have languished for months, described them as a "complete and total waste of time." That analysis by Paul A. Finn, a Massachusetts attorney who oversaw the settlement of 552 cases of sexual abuse against the Archdiocese of Boston, came during a court conference last week when leaders of a committee representing dozens of plaintiffs' attorneys informed the diocese's attorney they should file for bankruptcy if they can't provide a meaningful offer by Tuesday. Cynthia S. LaFave, an attorney on the plaintiffs liaison committee, said they have been waiting since July for the diocese to offer what they expect to be a figure in the hundreds of millions of dollars for a fund that would be used to settle and pay damages to the hundreds of alleged victims. "We do not see the previous offer as a realistic offer," LaFave said of a deal put forth by the diocese in July. She added that if the diocese believes the undisclosed offer made four months ago is fair, "then they might as well just file for bankruptcy now — because there is not a single plaintiff’s attorney that will agree with that analysis."

A medical clinic in Johnson County filed for bankruptcy after facing a $75 million malpractice judgment to parents of a newborn who suffers permanent brain damage, the Daily Iowan reported. In 2018, the newborn sustained serious brain damage after his birth at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City after health care providers allegedly improperly used forceps and a vacuum, crushing the baby’s head during delivery. The parents of the newborn, Kathleen and Andrew Kromphardt, sued Mercy Hospital of Iowa City, Obstetric and Gynecologic Associates of Iowa City and Coralville and Jill Goodman, an obstetrician-gynecologist and one of the directors of the Coralville clinic. A Johnson County jury awarded more than $98 million in March to the family for the clinic’s malpractice and negligence throughout the child’s pregnancy, labor, and birth. The jury found Mercy Hospital and the Coralville clinic to each be 50 percent at fault in the case. Mercy Hospital’s liability was capped at $7 million in a pre-trial agreement with the parents, which they paid shortly following the trial. Coralville clinic is liable for the remainder of the award.

A substantial amount of FTX’s assets are either missing or stolen, a lawyer for the failed crypto exchange said in court, vowing to cast a wide net to secure potentially billions of dollars in funds that passed through the firm he called the “personal fiefdom” of co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, the Wall Street Journal reported. Yesterday’s hearing marked an inflection point for FTX’s bankruptcy case as its new leaders begin chasing down what assets they can salvage and trying to determine who might be responsible for the loss of customers’ money. “FTX was in the control of inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals, and some or all of them were compromised individuals,” said James Bromley, counsel to FTX’s new management, at its first appearance in Delaware bankruptcy court after filing the largest-ever crypto chapter 11 case earlier this month. The new management is only beginning to take stock of how much FTX lost under Mr. Bankman-Fried on risky trading bets, and it has assembled a team of investigators to lead a global hunt for money that left FTX before it failed. Prosecutors in New York and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are examining the firm’s collapse, which unleashed a new wave of financial stress in the cryptocurrency industry. Customers’ funds on the exchange are frozen, and they are losing hope they will ever get much back. The size of the gap between FTX’s obligations to its customers and available assets it could use to help pay them still isn’t known, though Mr. Bromley said its individual and institutional customers number in the millions. The 50 largest creditors alone are owed more than $3 billion, court papers show.

Long before Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX cryptocurrency empire collapsed this month, it already was on the radar of federal prosecutors in Manhattan, Bloomberg News reported. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, led by Damian Williams, spent several months working on a sweeping examination of crypto currency platforms with U.S. and offshore arms and had started poking into FTX’s massive exchange operations, according to people familiar with the investigation. The focus was on compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act, the people said. Authorities have used the law, requiring financial institutions take steps to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing, to go after crypto platforms that allegedly falsely claimed that they don’t serve U.S. customers. Bahamas-based FTX operated one of the world’s largest international crypto exchanges, as well as a separate and much more limited venue called FTX US that said it complies with the act.

FTX is expected to make its debut appearance today in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, where its new management is expected to recount events leading up to the cryptocurrency platform’s sudden collapse and explain the steps it has since taken to secure customer funds and other assets, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. FTX’s lawyers are advancing an unprecedented chapter 11 case marked already by allegations of major failures against its former leadership and a budding jurisdictional dispute with the government of the Bahamas, where the firm’s inner circle ran its doomed crypto operation. Contagion is still spreading from the failure of FTX, and the impact on its one million estimated customers won’t be known for some time. FTX's new management is now seeking to pay a cybersecurity services provider and other vendors involved in running its business operations. The firm is also seeking to establish a new system to manage its remaining cash and keep employees on the payroll during bankruptcy. That may not be an easy task. FTX advisers said in court papers that it suffered “extraordinary attrition” before filing chapter 11 last week. The new management is also expected to update the court on an emerging dispute with public officials in the Bahamas, where FTX founder and former chief executive Sam Bankman -Fried resides. Tuesday’s hearing could also provide additional information on transfers that were made out of FTX following the chapter 11 filing.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.