In an interesting development that emerged in the FTX case, the wife of Christian Everdell, who was defending Sam Bankman-Fried, turned out to be one of the SEC attorneys.
SBF’s familiar defense team in the FTX case
Bankman-Fried, 30, was charged with two counts of fraud and six conspiracy charges in Manhattan federal court last month for allegedly stealing FTX client deposits to pay off debts from hedge fund Alameda Research and lying to stock investors about FTX’s finances. Mark Cohen, who was also the lawyer of Mexican drug lord El Chapo, defended the SBF, which was initially tried for 115 years. According to the WSJ report, the wife of another SBF attorney is now a lawyer for the SEC’s New York office.
Meanwhile, it’s not the first time the lawyers looking into the FTX file have been found to be linked to the exchange. Glenn Ellison, father of Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, was a colleague at MIT with SEC chairman Gary Gensler. Also, judge Ronnie Abrams, who oversees the FTX case, was fired last week on grounds of his wife’s FTX-related companies.
According to the latest findings, the wife of Christian Everdell, one of the current attorneys of the SBF, is serving in the New York office of the SEC. Ann Marie Preissler needs to step down due to her closeness to both the SEC and FTX.
Court documents show about 117 parties interested in buying FTX
In other news, attempts to urgently sell LedgerX and FTX Japan sparked legal protests. As the deadline for initial bids approaches, around 117 parties have expressed interest in purchasing FTX units, according to a legal filing released on Sunday. While the crypto company’s bankruptcy proceedings could take years, he prioritized the sale of LedgerX, FTX Japan, FTX Europe, and stock exchange Embed, arguing that the property is the easiest to separate and risks losing value if not sold quickly.
Perella Weinberg, the investment bank hired by FTX Group to represent the collapsed crypto company, said as of Sunday, “about 117 parties worldwide, including various financial and strategic counterparties, have expressed interest in the potential acquisition of one or more businesses to borrowers.” .
Cofsky says that FTX has signed 59 nondisclosure agreements so far. LedgerX, a derivatives arm of FTX USA and one of the few companies to maintain solvency in the empire, leads the pack with 56 expressions of interest. The US Board of Trustees, a branch of the Department of Justice (DOJ) responsible for bankruptcy cases, protested Saturday that the deal should protect user privacy and not sell potentially valuable assets where there are allegations of serious misconduct.
In a response released Sunday, the exchange said it would not sell any claims linked to Sam Bankman-Fried, Gary Wang, Nishad Singh, Caroline Ellison or their families, given the claims made by the DOJ against these former top executives, as well as securities. The deadline for submitting initial bids for the four companies will run from January 18 to February 1. However, in a filing on Sunday, a committee representing FTX’s creditors said they “cautiously agreed” to proceed with the sale, but added that it failed to see the case to rush it.
