FTX Wants to Claw Back $71M From Its Philanthropic and Life Science Arms

FTX seemingly collapsed in a day but the bankruptcy process does not play out as quickly. We got two stories here. First up FTX users potentially targeted in a possible phishing attack. This is an email sent to users from an official looking address saying reset your password. It's a little bit suspicious. A little bit sketchy. We're not sure at this point based on the reporting if it's real or if it was an attack out there by unsuspecting former FTX customers. That's 12 FTX bankruptcy process seeking to claw back $71 million from FTXS Life Sciences arm FTX and SBF specifically, we're very keen on funding a lot of Life sciences research that could potentially do much good for the world. But FTX Unwound and now the bankruptcy proceeding is trying to get back as much money as possible for its many creditors. Couple of nuggets here one on the OPSEC end, one on the slow march toward justice. I'm gonna throw it to will for his initial thoughts on this double shot of FTX news. Yeah. Cyber security. Not interesting stuff, but I'll get your ass so you better pay attention to it. Uh that's all I have to say for that story. The other one is a little more interesting to me because it does involve a lot of money. We've seen a few headlines like this. So I'm kind of like lost in the malaise of so many FTX headlines trying to claw back funds on behalf of its, uh, previous customers. There's been stuff with Block Five, there's been stuff with three years capital, there's been stuff with other partners out there. Uh As you see this piece, they've even included stuff about celebrities, right? Where, you know, they gave a lot of money to celebrities that Tom Brady and the Steph Curry is the world. And I think three, I think uh FCX kind of wants that money back to pay back its customers and maybe even pay back all the lawyers that they're uh paying right now to go through this chapter 11 proceeding. The question for me is like, when can you get this money back? And what's the reason for it? Because if FDX was operating as a legitimate business as it sort of was before November of last year, when things started falling apart so quickly, then it's just a business transaction, right? And just because it went into chapter 11 afterwards doesn't really necessarily mean anything from my understanding, it's typically like 90 days prior to the declaration of Chapter 11 is when some of these funds can be clawed back with those restrictions on that we've seen, uh, or I guess all of us have become somewhat familiar with Chapter 11 Pros because there's been so many over the last two years, but I have a hard time believing that some of his funds can't be clawed back because that certainly was earlier than that 90 day period. But, hey, I'm no legal expert on the show. So let's give her a Jen who is our legal expert. I think if you have the funds and you have a stand up business and FTX comes and asks you back for those funds because they want to pay back their users. I think they owe users something to the tune of $8 billion. You probably want to do it. If, if you can just for the pr um if we look at what the lawyer said in this filing, will they said while purporting to make these investments for altruistic purposes like pandemic prevention and preparedness bank in fact, pursued these transactions because he believed that doing so would generate goodwill and a mass political capital and influence for himself. So that's one of the reasons why they've given for trying to get back this 70 some odd million dollars. Will you pointed to that $700 million number? We learned that they're trying to get back from those two celebrity connectors. So it feels like they're just going after uh everyone who took money from Sam Baman. Like what a good argument behind it and maybe they'll get some of those funds back. I think the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art actually did give back 550 yeah, $550,000 they agreed to return it. So I think it ends when, when they've got an answer from everyone, they've been able to get some funds back. I, I think desperate times call for desperate measures. Let me throw this at you. You, you read that, that quote from the lawyer who said that Sam Bacon was trying to do a mask clout for his company. What CEO is not doing that in crypto, what CEO is not trying to amass clout. Uh Lots of these companies do this, right? Lots of them sponsorships with sports teams have sponsorships with influencers like everyone does that. So that's not a rationale for clawing back funds in any sense. I'm sorry that FTX went under and that people lost funds. But like those were legitimate business transactions at the time, even if they were exorbitantly overpaid, which I think all of these were like $700 million just to get celebrity connections. That's crazy. You didn't need to do, need to do that. And there was a lot of criticism at FTX at the time for doing so, but doesn't mean that you can go back and claw back all these funds because you know, they ink the deal. Uh That's who was at the helm of the, the ship at the time. I don't know, Zach. I mean, I think lawyers, lawyer John Ray, man, he, he's, he's not playing dog, he's coming for that money no matter what. I think this is funny because it also kind of, it reminds me of that. Remember that Vox piece where like the reporter like published all the D MS with SPF and he's like all us, all us woke Westerners. We're just saying the right, you know, liberal sli to make everyone like us this one kind of is that a little bit, right? Like SPF was sort of hitting all the right buttons to, to get the world to think, oh, this guy, he's an upstanding CEO he's out here doing good in the world and this funding of Life Sciences and COVID research was kind of one of those ones that in retrospect is one of those, right, Shibli that uh SPF talked about when he wasn't under the impression that it was gonna be made public shortly thereafter. So, yeah, it is funny to kind of look back and uh and, and remember some of these statements and then see how it intersects with the court of law as, as it relates to the bankruptcy proceeding itself. So it is uh it is a bit funny to watch this be unwound piece by piece the Empire in, in Shambles, Alameda, FTX Empire man. What a story, what a story. It was still going still going on. Anyway. Also, if you're looking to file a claim in the proceedings, remember September 29th, I believe is your deadline. That is a real known fact despite, uh, potential fishing attacks and whatnot. So that's a public service announcement. Get that in by late September if you want to be in line. Anyway, Jen. To, to you. Yeah. Well, I, I just want to point out about the fishing attacks. These are potential fishing attacks, right? They're not confirmed. The email address is one that is attached to FDXS customer service and so it could be legit and it could also not be legit. So these tips we give you about fishing attacks are not going to work here. Proceed with caution. Wait for more information. That's my public service announcement on the fishing attacks.