We finally know whom FTX owes money to: Wall Street elite, Big Tech, airlines, and many more
By Allison Morrow, CNN
Newly unsealed bankruptcy documents revealed thousands of creditors to whom FTX owes money after the once-mighty crypto exchange collapsed in November.
Wall Street heavyweights including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan were named in the creditor list, which includes businesses, charities, individuals and other entities in a 116-page document filed late Wednesday. FTX is now at the center of a massive fraud investigation.
Also included in the creditors list are media companies, such as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, commercial airliners, including American, United, Southwest and Spirit, as well as several Big Tech players, including Netflix, Apple and Meta.
On Thursday, lawyers for FTX filed an additional document advising the court that the list — known as a creditor matrix — is “intended to be very broad” and “includes parties who may appear in the Debtors books and records for any number of reasons.” Being on the list does not “necessarily indicate that the party is a creditor” of FTX or its affiliates, they wrote.
Goldman Sachs, for one, is named in the creditor matrix but doesn’t appear to be a creditor. In a statement to CNN on Wednesday, the bank said it had not filed a claim against FTX.
“This type of creditor matrix is prepared by the debtors for the purpose of providing notice to interested parties in a bankruptcy proceeding and is not necessarily evidence of a creditor relationship,” a spokesperson said.
The document doesn’t disclose the amount or nature of the debt, and names of individual creditors — mostly customers who deposited funds on FTX — remain redacted at FTX’s request. Inclusion on the creditor list doesn’t necessarily mean the parties had an FTX account.
FTX is believed to have more than a million creditors, the top 50 of whom are collectively owed more than $3 billion.
The crypto platform was once of the most popular crypto exchanges on the planet, fueled by celebrity endorsements and high-profile partnerships with sports teams. It marketed itself as a beginner-friendly crypto platform, allowing customers to deposit fiat currency and trade it for digital assets. But FTX came unraveled in November as speculation about its balance sheet sparked investor panic. In the midst of a liquidity crisis, the company filed for bankruptcy, leaving customers in limbo.
Federal prosecutors investigating FTX say that its founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, orchestrated a massive fraud by stealing customer funds to cover losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research. They also accuse him of using stolen money to buy luxury real estate and contribute to US poltical campaigns.
Bankman-Fried, who was indicted in December and remains under house arrest at his parents’ California home, pleaded not guilty to eight criminal counts earlier this month. He has repeatedly denied committing fraud, and is scheduled to go to trial in October.
Two of his former business partners have pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges and are cooperating with prosecutors from the Southern District of New York. Both associates have implicated Bankman-Fried in the alleged crimes.
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