Emergent Fidelity Technologies, an Antigua and Barbuda-based holding company of Sam Bankman-Fried, has filed for bankruptcy.
According to court records filed on February 3, Emergent Fidelity Technologies filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The company was already the subject of a lawsuit filed by cryptocurrency lending firm BlockFi in November regarding the status of some 55 million shares of Robinhood.
Robinhood’s shares – valued at more than $590 million at press time – have been a bone of contention between parties, including FTX creditor BlockFi, YJonathan Ben Shimon and Bankman-Fried himself. The Justice Department announced on January 6 that it had seized the shares, as well as about USD 20 million, as part of the case against FTX and its executives.
Emergent Fidelity Technologies claimed ownership of the shares and the $20 million as its “only known assets,” previously held by brokerage firm Marex Capital Markets before the DOJ seizure. According to a statement from Angela Barkhouse, one of the joint provisional liquidators in the case, Emergent Fidelity Technologies filed for Chapter 11 in the same court as FTX to seek a “form of joint administration” between the two bankruptcies.
“Homework [de los liquidadores provisionales conjuntos] are to the debtor’s creditors, whoever they are,” Barkhouse said. “Given the numerous parties who claim creditor or outright ownership of the [acciones de Robinhood] in proceedings in the US, the Joint Liquidators Interim believe that chapter 11 protection is the only practical way to empower the Debtor to defend itself, the Assets and the interests of its creditors in the US.”
According to Barkhouse, Bankman-Fried owns 90% of the company, and FTX co-founder Gary Wang owns the remaining 10%. Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial is scheduled to begin in October, while Wang has already pleaded guilty to fraud charges.
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