SBF Opposes Order To Testify In Voyager Digital Bankruptcy Hearing

• What – The co-founder and former CEO of the bankrupt FTX crypto exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), has been making multiple court appearances.
• Why – The former executive is under the regulators’ radar due to several pieces of evidence against him following the implosion of FTX.
• What Next – His attorneys requested blocking the order, citing that it was not adequately served.

In a new development, SBF opposes an order to appear in the Voyager Digital bankruptcy hearing.

SBF Defies Subpoena From Voyager Attorneys

In the firm’s bankruptcy case, the lawyers representing Voyager’s unsecured creditors served SBF a subpoena. The summon is for SBF to personally appear at the San Francisco offices of McDermott Will & Emery on February 23 during the case hearing. Also, SBF was expected to turn over an exclusive and wide-ranging document by February 20. 

Besides SBF, other top executives of FTX and its sister firm, Alameda Research, were also summoned for interrogations. These include Gary Wang, co-founder of FTX; Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda; Ramnik Aurora, FTX’s Head of Product; and others. But according to Bloomberg’s report, on February 22, SBF’s attorneys, on Tuesday, told a federal judge in California to block the summon. 

Voyager Digital and SBF’s two entities, FTX and Alameda Research, have been maintaining some relationships before now. For example, Alameda was one of the most significant shareholders of Voyager. Also, FTX was to acquire Voyager before the implosion of the crypto exchange in November last year.

According to a Bloomberg report, SBF’s defunct crypto trading platform, Alameda, has been trying to take back $446 million from Voyager Digital. Voyager offered the funds as crypto loans to Alameda before filing for bankruptcy in July 2022.

However, Alameda paid back all the loans shortly before going bankrupt. So, via bankruptcy rules, Alameda plans to get back the funds to settle all its creditors.

SBF’s Attorneys Tag The Supoena As Unreasonable

SBF’s lawyers refuted the order on their requesting a federal judge to block it. They pointed out that it was improperly served and is unreasonable for SBF. The attorneys stated that such a subpoena could make SBF invoke his Fifth Amendment constitutional right to prevent him from incriminating himself.

According to the US constitution, the Fifth Amendment constitutional right guarantees that a person is not under the compulsion of the government to provide incriminating details about himself. It is also known as the ‘right to remain silent.’

The subpoena was given to SBF’s mother at his parent’s residence in California. However, SBF was absent since he attended a bail hearing about his criminal case in New York.

The attorneys for Voyager’s unsecured creditors stated they’re putting forth discussions to delay pretrial information sharing. The process included the subpoena for all the individuals needed in the case hearing. However, SBF’s lawyer, Marc R. Lewis, reported in the filing that he had not confirmed such information.

Numerous events and investigations surrounding the bankrupt FTX crypto exchange are among the top cases in crypto history. SBF is accused of masterminding fraud by misrepresenting financial details to investors and misusing customers’ funds worth billions of dollars. 

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