SBF’s mom, Caroline Ellison aren’t cooperating in bankruptcy probe: lawyers

• SBF, his mom, his brother, and key executives in his crypto empire aren’t cooperating in the FTX bankruptcy case, according to a recent court filing.
• FTX lawyers said several key insiders have not responded or declined to give requested information related to the collapsed exchange.
• But discussions with Bankman-Fried’s father and another FTX executive have been making progress, the filing said.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s mom, brother, and former executives from his empire have not been cooperating with the investigation into FTX’s finances, according to the failed crypto exchange’s team of lawyers.

Lawyers have been working nonstop to locate and recover FTX’s assets since the crypto exchange declared bankruptcy in November, according to a court filing on Wednesday. Now they intended to subpoena Sam Bankman-Fried, his family, and former lieutenants.

While some of them have responded to letters sent by FTX’s lawyers asking for more information, none of them have voluntarily given the requested documents or information, the filing said.

In particular, former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang have declined to give FTX’s lawyers requested information.

While they aren’t cooperating on the FTX bankruptcy case, both Ellison and Wang agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in their criminal case against Bankman-Fried after they pleaded guilty to fraud. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges.

FTX’s former director of engineering, Nishad Singh, has not responded to bankruptcy lawyers’ information requests, though the 27-year-old crypto exec was reportedly one of the few people who knew FTX was misusing customer funds.

FTX lawyers also said they were not able to get a “meaningful engagement or any response” out of brother Gabriel Bankman-Fried, while mother Barbara Fried “ignored the Requests altogether.”

However, discussions with Bankman-Fried’s father Joseph Bankman and former FTX COO Zhe Wang have been making progress, the filing said.

“Certain insiders are currently cooperating with the Debtors to provide important information. But others are not, and thus, authorization to issue subpoenas to those with the missing information is critical to the Debtors’ and Committee’s recovery efforts,” lawyers said, adding there were still  “key questions” about FTX’s finances and transactions that needed to be answered.

So far, liquidators have recovered $5 billion in liquid assets, but locating the rest of the money could take months, Ray warned, considering that the exchange had virtually no record-keeping.

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