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FTX Bankruptcy Judge Allows Company to Subpoena Founder Bankman-Fried, Other 'Insiders'
FTX's new leadership asked for the subpoenas last month.
U.S Judge John Dorsey ordered that FTX's new leadership and its official creditor committee can subpoena the crypto exchange's founders and former executives, including Sam Bankman-Fried.
Gary Wang, Caroline Ellison, Nishad Singh, Constance Wang and Bankman-Fried's family – mother Barbara Fried, father Joseph Bankman and brother Gabriel Bankman-Fried – can also be subpoenaed, the order said. FTX's Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors and its leadership moved to subpoena the individuals last month.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
FTX is looking for information about who may have received funds sent from the company, which may have included misappropriated customer funds.
"Certain insiders are currently cooperating with the Debtors to provide important information. But others are not, and thus authorization to issue subpoenas to those with the missing information is critical to the Debtors’ and Committee’s recovery efforts," FTX wrote at the time.
Judge Dorsey, of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, signed off on the order Wednesday, noting that FTX could come back with further requests.
"The Movants are authorized under Bankruptcy Rules 2004 and 9016 to issue subpoenas to the any or all of the Insiders for the production of documents, electronically stored information, or tangible things, including those responsive to the Requests," he wrote.
The scope of the information demands can still be tweaked if an independent examiner is appointed, the order said, referring to concerns from the Department of Justice that there could be duplication of effort.
The judge also signed a second order allowing FTX to subpoena third parties for information that may be tied to a hack of the exchange from the day it filed for bankruptcy protection.
Jack Schickler contributed reporting.
Nikhilesh De
Nikhilesh De is CoinDesk's managing editor for global policy and regulation, covering regulators, lawmakers and institutions. He owns < $50 in BTC and < $20 in ETH. He won a Gerald Loeb award in the beat reporting category as part of CoinDesk's blockbuster FTX coverage in 2023, and was named the Association of Cryptocurrency Journalists and Researchers' Journalist of the Year in 2020.
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