FTX Files List of Creditors in Delaware Bankruptcy Court
FTX Attorney “The number of creditors may exceed 1 million, not the 100,000 originally suggested”
FTX accounts for 99% of All Crypto Industry Political Donations
Astronomical gifts to Democratic and Republican Senate and House leaders
| Appearance by Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX, one of the top three virtual asset exchanges in the world. [AFP] |
[헤럴드경제=신동윤 기자] FTX, one of the world’s three largest virtual asset exchanges, which shook up the global virtual asset market by filing for bankruptcy protection with a US court, was found to owe about 4.2 trillion won to its top 50 creditors.
In the midst of this, it was revealed that FTX executives, including founder Sam Bankman-Fried and the former CEO, were keen on ‘political-business collusion’ by spreading astronomical political donations to Washington, DC, USA.
According to Bloomberg News on the 20th (local time), according to the list of FTX creditors submitted to the Delaware bankruptcy court, the debt to be repaid to the top 50 unsecured creditors amounted to $3.1 billion (about 4.16 trillion won).
FTX’s debt to the top creditor was $226 million (about 303.5 billion won), and the debt to the top 10 reached $1.45 billion (about 1.9474 trillion won). FTX did not disclose the names of its creditors in its court filing. Bloomberg said, “The top 50 creditors are individual and institutional customers affected by the FTX insolvency crisis.”
Previously, FTX filed for bankruptcy protection on the 11th and presented the number of creditors as around 100,000, but three days later, FTX lawyers reported back to the court that the number of creditors could exceed 1 million.
In the middle of this, the US Daily Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing the Center for Responsible Politics (CRP), a non-profit organization that tracks the flow of electoral donations, FTX executives have been involved in various elections for both. Democratic and Republican parties over the past 18 months, as well as virtual political organizations related to assets It was reported on the same day that he had a ‘money party’ by contributing a total of more than 72.1 million dollars (about 96.8 billion earned ) for people and individuals.
FTX political donations accounted for about 99% of the virtual asset industry’s total political donations ($73 million) during the same period. The WSJ evaluated, “Thanks to FTX, the virtual asset industry has become a ‘big hand’ that gave more campaign money than the defense and auto industries combined.”
FTX money flowed into the Democratic and Republican parties at an astronomical rate, CRP said.
Former CEO Bankman-Fried gave $39.9 million (about 53.6 billion won) to politicians or political action committees (PACs) connected to politicians before the midterm elections, most of this money flowed from Democratic politicians or progressive groups to the fields. Conversely, FTX senior executive Ryan Salame gave $23 million, mostly to Republican and conservative groups.
CRP said, “Bankman-Fried was listed as the second largest donor to the Democratic Party after George Soros, chairman of the Soros Fund, a global investor, and Salameh ranked 11th among Republican donors.”
FTX’s lobbying efforts include Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer ($3 million), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ($6 million), Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ($2.5 million), and Republican Kevin McCarthy, who has booked the next Speaker of the House. He also directed the leadership of both parties, including the floor leader ($2 million).
They also donated money generously to political groups and individuals who advocated for the virtual asset industry.
Meanwhile, ‘restructuring expert’ John J. Ray III, who took over as FTX’s new CEO, said he had begun reviewing FTX’s global assets through documents submitted to the bankruptcy court and was preparing to sale or reorganization of certain businesses. “After reviewing over the past week, we are fortunate to find that several of our subsidiaries, both inside and outside the United States, have solvency on their balance sheets and have valuable franchises,” he added in a statement.
realbighead@heraldcorp.com
