U.S. Media Outlets Renew Efforts to Uncover Non-U.S. Clients of FTX in Ongoing Legal Battle

Four prominent U.S. media outlets, including The Financial Times, Bloomberg, The New York Times, and Dow Jones, are continuing their efforts to uncover the identities of non-U.S. clients of FTX. On May 3, 2023, these media outlets submitted renewed objections to a previous motion that sought to keep these identities confidential.

In the new filing, the media companies argue that no legal justification exists for redacting the identities based on non-U.S. data privacy rules. They pointed out that the Bankruptcy Code’s Section 105, which provides the bankruptcy court with judicial authority, does not contain language that would permit foreign law to override the right to access information guaranteed by U.S. constitutional and statutory law. They also argued that the parties’ statement of legal obligations under foreign law could not be used to revoke the public’s right to review bankruptcy papers, which is strongly presumed under U.S. law.

The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors and FTX have until May 4, 2023, to submit their objection to the renewed opposition. The hearing for the filing is scheduled for May 17, 2023.

Earlier this year, on January 11, 2023, Judge John Dorsey approved the request from the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors and FTX to withhold and redact consumer information and seal the identities of non-U.S. clients. The Committee and FTX lawyers contended that disclosing the information would put the individual or the individual’s property at risk of identity theft or criminal harm. They requested the court to exercise its authority under the United States Bankruptcy Act to protect the users impacted by FTX’s collapse.

However, on April 4, 2023, DeFi Planet reported that The Financial Times, Bloomberg, The New York Times, and Dow Jones & Company submitted a motion opposing this request. Their objections were based on two grounds. The first is that FTX’s debtor list does not contain confidential business information, while the second is that disclosing this information would not put creditors at undue risk. The media outlets argued that the press and the general public have a presumed right to access bankruptcy filings.

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