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Jan. 11 (UPI) — Crypto exchange FTX has now recovered more than $5 billion in cash, digital assets and liquid assets so far, the company’s lawyers said during a bankruptcy court hearing Wednesday.
The $5 billion figure does not include any illiquid cryptocurrency assets, attorney Adam Landis told the court in Delaware.
The digital assets are expected to be sold easily, as creditors look to recoup as much money as possible.
FTX is continuing to work towards liquidating another $4.6 billion in less convertible assets, lawyers said Wednesday. It’s unclear how much of that amount will be recouped.
The company’s founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, faces eight charges connected to an alleged multibillion dollar fraud scheme.
Late last month, the Justice Department charged Bankman-Fried with two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, two counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering Each charge carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence.
He was arrested in December at his resort apartment in Nassau, Bahamas, “without incident,” according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force. He later was extradited to the United States.
The company’s 50 largest creditors are currently owed $3.1 billion, and a minimum of $5 billion is owed to smaller creditors and the firm’s nine million customers.
Individual investors are reportedly set to receive 13 cents on the dollar once the dust settles.
Federal prosecutors are also attempting to seize at least $500 million worth of FTX-connected assets as part of their ongoing prosecution of Bankman-Fried.
FTX filed for bankruptcy Nov. 11, while Bankman-Fried is facing charges from three different agencies: the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The SEC alleged that Bankman-Fried “orchestrated a years-long fraud to conceal” the diversion of FTX customers’ funds into his privately held crypto hedge fund Alameda Research.
