FTX’s tangled webs.

SBF was spotted running around the Bahamas wearing his trademark shorts and t-shirt and carrying a black backpack. He looks more like a schoolboy about to miss the bus than someone accused of a multibillion-dollar fraud. But in some good news, FTX’s new management has so far located $1.24 billion in cash that can be used to repay creditors. As for the rest, has anyone looked in the backpack?

The lowdown

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Credit: REUTERS/Koh Gui Qing

FTX bankruptcy proceedings

The FTX bankruptcy proceedings began in Delaware on Tuesday. Lawyer for FTX’s new management James Bromley called the collapse “one of the most abrupt and difficult collapses in the history of corporate America”.

The difficulty will lie in untangling the complex web of transactions.

For starters, FTX is likely to have more than 1 million creditors. The top 50 creditors are collectively owed $3.1 billion with the top 2 creditors owed more than $200 million each. The identity of these creditors will remain private for now.

A substantial amount of FTX’s assets have also been stolen or gone missing. FTX may have been the victim of a hack on the evening that it filed for bankruptcy with $600 million drained from wallets ($). $300 million was also spent on real estate in the Bahamas, including a $40 million luxury penthouse where FTX executives lived together.

It gets stranger though. There are rumors that SBF and other top executives living together were polyamorous. So perhaps the only thing more tangled than the transactions are the relationships – a nightmare for liquidators and HR.

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