US Treasury, financial watchdogs, companies among FTX creditors, filing shows

FINANCIAL watchdogs and government agencies from the United States, Japan and Switzerland are among creditors of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, as well as companies including Airbnb and crypto giant Binance, a court filing has shown.

FTX, once among the world’s top crypto exchanges, shook the sector in November by filing for bankruptcy, leaving an estimated one million customers and other investors facing total losses in the billions of dollars.

The US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are among those owed money by FTX, the list of creditors filed in a US court on Wednesday (Jan 25) showed. It did not give details of the nature or amount of monies owed.

Swiss markets watchdog FINMA and Japan’s FSA regulator were also listed in the 116-page document.

A FINMA spokesperson said it could not explain why it had appeared on the list of creditors. The watchdog was not a client of FTX and had not acted on its platforms, they added.

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FinCEN and the IRS declined to comment. Japan’s FSA, contacted outside business hours, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A host of companies from traditional industries and the crypto sector, including Airbnb Inc and Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange and once an arch-rival of FTX, were also cited as creditors.

Airbnb and Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

FTX said last year it owed its 50 biggest creditors nearly US$3.1 billion. US bankruptcy judge John Dorsey in January allowed FTX to keep secret the names of nine million of its individual customers for three months.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who has been accused of stealing billions of dollars from FTX customers to pay debts incurred by his crypto-focused hedge fund, has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges. He is scheduled to face trial in October. REUTERS