Bankman-Fried Resists Testifying in Voyager Digital Bankruptcy

Sam Bankman-Fried is resisting efforts to make him testify in the bankruptcy case of the digital asset lender Voyager Digital Ltd.

(Bloomberg) — Sam Bankman-Fried is resisting efforts to make him testify in the bankruptcy case of the digital asset lender Voyager Digital Ltd.

Lawyers for the co-founder of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange that collapsed causing billions of dollars in losses, asked a federal judge in California Tuesday to block a subpoena from lawyers representing unsecured creditors in the bankruptcy case underway in New York.

The subpoena calls for Bankman-Fried to appear in person Feb. 23 at the San Francisco offices of McDermott Will & Emery to answer questions, and it included 49 separate and wide-ranging document requests to be turned over by Feb. 20.

Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, Marc R. Lewis, argued the subpoena should be quashed because it wasn’t properly served, it’s unreasonable, and it may require the FTX chief executive officer to invoke his Fifth Amendment constitutional right to avoid incriminating himself.

The subpoena was delivered to Bankman-Fried’s mother at his parents’ house in California, but Sam wasn’t there because he was attending a bail hearing in his New York criminal case, according to the filing.

Alameda Research Ltd., Bankman-Fried’s defunct crypto trading house, is attempting to claw back about $446 million from Voyager Digital. The funds are related to cryptocurrency loans Voyager provided to Alameda before Voyager filed for bankruptcy in July.

Read More: Alameda Seeks to Claw Back $446 Million From Voyager Digital

Though lawyers for the unsecured creditors have said they are negotiating an agreement to delay pretrial information sharing, including the subpoena, Lewis said in the filing that he wasn’t able to confirm any such assurances.

The ongoing, sprawling investigation into November’s spectacular collapse of FTX is one of the highest-profile corporate crime cases in US history. Officials allege Bankman-Fried orchestrated a yearslong scam, which involved misleading investors and misusing billions of dollars of FTX customer funds for personal expenses and risky bets at Alameda. He has pleaded not guilty.

The bankruptcy case is Voyager Digital Holdings Inc., 22-10943, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan). The fight over the subpoena is In re: Rule 45 Subpoena to Non-Party Samuel Bankman-Fried, 23-mc-80052, US District Court, Northern District of California.

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