FTX, which is now in bankruptcy has numerous questionable entries in its financials. Now the company is requesting that its list of creditors be kept hidden.
This past week TGP reported that FTX’s balance sheet included an investment labeled “Trump Lose”.
BOMBSHELL REPORT: FTX Balance Sheet Contained Investment Called “TRUMPLOSE”
Zerohedge reported on the financials that FTX maintained which were a travesty. The financials of FTX included the following:
According to Ray, he has located “only a fraction” of the digital assets of the FTX Group that they hope recover during the Chapter 11 bankruptcy. They’ve so far secured about $740 million of cryptocurrency in offline cold wallets, a storage method designed to prevent hacks. This is just a fraction of the $10-$50 billion in liabilities the company disclosed in its bankruptcy filing.
How do we know it’s a fraud: as Ray writes on page 24, although the investigation has only begun and must run its course, it is my view based on the information obtained to date, “that many of the employees of the FTX Group, including some of its senior executives, were not aware of the shortfalls or potential commingling of digital assets.” Many maybe not, but some – and certainly SBF himself – did.
It gets better: Ray said that company’s audited financial statements should not be trusted, Ray said, adding that liquidators are working to rebuild balance sheets for FTX entities from the bottom up.
FTX “did not maintain centralized control of its cash” and failed to keep an accurate list of bank accounts and account signatories, or pay sufficient attention to the creditworthiness of banking partners, according to Ray. Advisers don’t yet know how much cash FTX Group had when it filed for bankruptcy, but has found about $560 million attributable to various FTX entities so far.
Although restructuring advisers have been in control of FTX for less than a week, they’ve seen enough to depict the crypto company as a deeply flawed enterprise. Lasting records of decision making are hard to come by: Bankman-Fried often communicated through applications that auto-deleted in short order and asked employees to do the same, according to Ray.
In the US there are requirements for companies to prepare timely and accurate financial statements. Auditors confirm these results and issue reports describing their work and what is being confirmed. It is important for the financials to be accurate and timely. FTX apparently didn’t do this.
In addition to all the issues with the financials, in a filing today, the debtors of FTX have requested that the names and lists of all the creditors of FTX be kept secret.