Top bankruptcy exec winding down FTX says crypto wreckage is worst he’s seen in 40 years. Here’s his Chapter 11 filing.
John Ray III took over as CEO of failed crypto exchange FTX last week, and just completed FTX’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, linked below. Ray was in charge of winding down Enron, one of the biggest corporate fraud cases in U.S. history, yet his FTX filing says FTX looks worse and “unprecedented.” Here are some select excerpts from the full filing.
===
I have over 40 years of legal and restructuring experience. I have been the Chief Restructuring Officer or CEO in several of the largest corporate failures in history. I have supervised situations involving allegations of criminal activity and malfeasance (Enron). I have supervised situations involving novel financial structures (Enron and Residential Capital) and cross-border asset recovery and maximization (Nortel and Overseas Shipholding). Nearly every situation in which I have been involved has been characterized by defects of some sort in internal controls, regulatory compliance, human resources and systems integrity.
Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here. From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented.
The Debtors have located and secured only a fraction of the digital assets of the FTX Group that they hope to recover in these Chapter 11 Cases.
One of the most pervasive failures of the FTX.com business in particular is the absence of lasting records of decision-making. Mr. Bankman-Fried often communicated by using applications that were set to auto-delete after a short period of time, and encouraged employees to do the same.
Transparency with regulators around the world is an important objective for the Debtors. Since Friday, the Debtors have been in contact with dozens of regulators throughout the United States and around the world, and will continue to be as these cases continue.
___
Reference:
– Read the FTX crypto exchange Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing