FTX Creditors Subpoena Bankman-Fried, His Inner Circle And Father Joseph Bankman

Sam Bankman-Fried, his inner circle and his father Joseph Bankman have been served with subpoenas by the FTX’s committee of unsecured creditors following approval from the U.S Bankruptcy court.

FTX insiders, including the disgraced FTX founder Bankman-Fried, former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, former FTX CTO Gary Wang, former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets Nishad Singh and Bankman-Fried’s father, have received subpoenas to provide detailed information linked to the controversial collapse of the crypto empire, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

They were asked to submit all documents related to payments made or received to FTX and provide details of communication made with the FTX group of companies, other FTX insiders and the Bahamian authority, including “any payments, digital assets, real estate, fiat currency, or other assets received from any of the entities in the FTX Group,” by Thursday.

However, the FTX committee of unsecured creditors has required more specific documents from Bankman-Fried. The former FTX founder was ordered to submit all financial documents related to FTX and Emergent technology, a company he co-founded with Wang.

SBF, as he is colloquially called in the crypto space, was also asked to explain the reason for his resignation as the CEO of FTX and the decision behind the appointment of John Ray III to the role.

Furthermore, Bankman-Fried was required to produce all documents on the proposed sale of the company to the crypto exchange platform Binance and explain the reason behind the centralized exchange’s decision to back out from the deal.

Binance initially planned to acquire FTX in November but it did not materialize, with the exchange’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao, alleging that FTX’s liquidity issues were “beyond our control or ability to help.”

Binance, in a Twitter thread on Nov. 9, explained why the deal did not happen.

“In the beginning, our hope was to be able to support FTX’s customers to provide liquidity, but the issues are beyond our control or ability to help,” the tweet read.

The subpoena ordered the disgraced crypto founder to defend his decision on his claim that FTX US was solvent.

FTX committee of unsecured creditors also sought documents related to “any payments or other transfers of value to any political campaigns, politicians, political action committees, political parties” and other affiliated individuals.

Bankman-Fried is expected to respond to the subpoena with the required documents by Friday.

Bankman-Fried’s parents, specifically his father, were asked for documents related to attempts to return the real estate to debtors.

FTX purchased $256 million worth of real estate in the Bahamas, where the crypto empire was headquartered. It included the $16.4 million mansion where Joseph and his wife Barbara resided.