The vast number of creditors to whom FTX owes money has been revealed in newly unsealed bankruptcy documents following the crypto exchange giant’s collapse in November. Among its credit list are individuals, charities, and some of the biggest names in the business world.
The 116-page document includes titans such as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Meta, Netflix, and Apple. Commercial airline companies United, Spirit, Southwest, and American also appeared on the list.
Yet FTX lawyers filed an additional document on Thursday, January 26, advising the court that the creditor list is “intended to be very broad” and “includes parties who may appear in debtor records and books for multiple reasons.” The document further clarified that the entities listed are not “necessarily a creditor” of FTX.
The amount or nature of debts is not detailed in this filing. Individual creditors, primarily customers who made deposits on the FTX exchange, had their names redacted per the request of FTX. Only some people on the creditor list had an account on the platform, which once held the distinction of being one of the most popular exchanges in the world.
Ultimately, FTX is believed to have more than a million creditors. It owes a whopping total of over $3 billion to its top 50 creditors.
In the aftermath of the company’s implosion, it is under a massive fraud investigation. Samuel Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, was indicted in December on multiple criminal counts. The platform’s downfall began last November when speculation about its balance sheet generated widespread panic among investors. Sparking a liquidity crisis, FTX filed for bankruptcy and plunged its customers into uncertainty regarding their formidable assets.
Bankman-Fried has consistently denied that he committed fraud. Yet federal prosecutors are claiming that crypto’s former Golden Boy did so on a massive scale. He is accused of stealing FTX customer funds and using them to cover tremendous losses at Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund and sister company to FTX.
Samuel Bankman-Fried is due to go to trial in October. Two of his former partners have pled guilty to conspiracy and fraud charges. They are cooperating with prosecutors and have implicated their colleague in these alleged crimes.