SBF resists order to appear at Voyager Digital bankruptcy hearing

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder and former CEO of now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, is resisting an order to testify in the bankruptcy hearing of crypto broker Voyager Digital.

On Tuesday, SBF lawyers asked a federal judge to overturn the order because it was not served properly, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

SBF fights Voyager subpoena

Recall that on February 18, the committee representing Voyager’s unsecured creditors served SBF and other top executives of FTX and Alameda Research with subpoenas. The order asked them to appear in court for a remote deposition with the required documents.

CryptoPotato reported that other executives who received the subpoenas included FTX co-founder Gary Wang, former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, and FTX product manager Ramnik Aurora, among others.

Subpoenas focus on FTX try to redeem Voyager’s assets after the brokerage filed for bankruptcy. The latter argued that the takeover attempt was unreasonable because the offer was made to advertise FTX.

Notably, Alameda Research is also trying to raise around $446 million from Voyager, related to crypto loans made to the former before the latter went bankrupt.

The subpoena, given to SBF’s mother due to his absence, requests that he appear in person Feb. 23 at the offices of McDermott Will & Emery in San Francisco. Before that, however, SBF was supposed to hand over 49 separate documents by February 20.

An “unreasonable” order

SBF attorneys have asked a California federal judge to block the order, arguing it was improperly served and could cause the FTX founder to invoke his Fifth Amendment constitutional right to avoid incriminating himself. .

The Fifth Amendment, also known as the right to silence, ensures that the government does not compel anyone to provide incriminating information about itself. Such a rule applies to subpoena orders and other legal proceedings.

Meanwhile, representatives for Voyager’s unsecured creditors have revealed they are negotiating an agreement to delay pre-trial information sharing, including subpoena. However, SBF attorney Marc R. Lewis told the judge he was unsure of the claim.