• Two notable developments occurred in U.S. courts on Feb. 15 concerning the bankrupt crypto firm FTX and its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried.
• Court documents revealed that two individuals who signed Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail bonds were a Stanford University senior research scientist and a former Stanford Law dean.
• 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.
SBF Bond Signers Revealed
Court documents today revealed that two individuals who signed Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail bonds 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 Coindesk, the former dean said that his friendship with the family was the reason he posted bail.
Judge Rules Against Probe
In FTX’s separate bankruptcy proceedings, Judge John Dorsey ruled that an additional independent probe is not necessary and denied a motion to appoint an independent examiner. Judge Dorsey noted that FTX’s replacement CEO has appointed independent directors and experts with very little connection to FTX to look into the company’s past actions and 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 but Judge Dorsey was ultimately undecided on whether or not to appoint one as recently as Feb 6th.
Background Information
Previously, Judge Lewis Kaplan allowed two individuals who signed Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail bonds to be publicly identified during his criminal trial but Bankman-Fried asked for their identities remain private on Jan 3rd . The judge approved the reveal of their identities on Jan 30th but gave Bankman-Fried time to file an appeal which delayed the disclosure until today (Feb 15th).
Costs of Probe
Judge Dorsey said appointing an independent examiner would cost tens of millions of dollars and would likely surpass $100 million which would impose indirect costs on creditors (or former customers) by reducing their eventual compensation; this led him to decide against appointing one in favor of allowing existing investigative parties take care of it instead .
Conclusion
Two notable developments took place in U.S courts today concerning bankrupt crypto firm FTX – SBF bond signers were revealed to be former Stanford faculty while FTX bankruptcy judge ruled against probe due high cost implications for creditors/former customers if such probe were conducted .