Press Release

Patterson Belknap attorney Robert J. Cleary served as the Independent Examiner in the FTX Trading Ltd. bankruptcy cases pending in Delaware. Mr. Cleary was responsible for drafting an initial report summarizing the findings and status of all previous investigations into the collapse of FTX and recommending additional investigations to conduct. The bankruptcy court also directed Mr. Cleary to investigate potential conflicts of interest related to FTX’s retention of outside bankruptcy counsel and to determine whether any FTX employees who participated in the underlying criminal conduct were still employed by FTX. A cross-disciplinary team of Patterson Belknap bankruptcy and litigation attorneys served as counsel to Mr. Cleary and conducted extensive investigations and reporting on issues critical to the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange.

In May 2024, Mr. Cleary and the Patterson Belknap team filed an initial 210-page Examiner Report, which included recommendations that the court authorize three additional investigations related to the FTX bankruptcy cases. Upon receiving the court's approval, the follow-on investigations were carried out and the findings were summarized in a 126-page Report, which was filed in September 2024. The Reports cleared a prominent law firm of a disqualifying conflict of interest in the firm’s pre-petition work and found that the law firm did not become aware of any red flags during the course of that work. 

Bankruptcy partner Daniel Lowenthal and associate Kimberly Black led the Patterson Belknap Business Reorganization team. Litigation partners H. Gregory Baker, Peter Harvey, Lauren Schorr Potter, and Jason Vitullo led the Investigations team. Both teams were assisted by associates Josie Dikkers, Lauren Doxey, Ian Eppler, William Hayes, and Alvin Li, and Practice Area Attorney David Erroll. 

To read coverage on this case from The American Lawyer, please click here.