Two notable developments concerning the bankrupt crypto firm FTX and its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, occurred in court on Feb. 15.
Stanford members signed SBF bail bond
Previously, Judge Lewis Kaplan allowed two individuals who signed Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail bonds to be publicly identified during his criminal trial.
Court documents today revealed that those bond signers (or sureties) were a Stanford University senior research scientist and a former Stanford Law dean who signed a $200,000 bond and a $500,000 bond, respectively.
Bankman-Fried’s parents are professors at Stanford University. In comments to Coinbase, the former dean said that his friendship with the family was the reason he posted bail.
Bankman-Fried asked for the two bond signatories to remain private on Jan. 3. The judge approved the reveal of their identities on Jan. 30, but Bankman-Fried was given time to file an appeal. As a result, the identities of the signers were not disclosed until today.
FTX needs no further probe
In FTX’s separate bankruptcy proceedings, a judge ruled that an additional independent probe is not necessary and denied a motion to appoint an independent examiner.
Judge John Dorsey said that appointing an independent examiner would cost tens of millions of dollars and would likely surpass $100 million. This, he said, would impose indirect costs on creditors (or former customers) by reducing their eventual compensation.
The judge noted that FTX’s replacement CEO, John Ray III, has appointed independent directors and experts with very little connection to FTX to look into the company’s past actions. He said that those parties are competent to take on the task.
Judge Dorsey decided that the established law does not require an examiner to be appointed and that the court can deny the appointment of an examiner.
The U.S. Department of Justice was behind initial calls for an examiner. The judge was undecided on whether to appoint an examiner as recently as Feb. 6.
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