Media outlets want FTX clients’ user names revealed
In a new filing presented to the Delaware Bankruptcy Court, several mainstream media sites have urged to reveal the identity of FTX clients outside the United States.
In a court petition submitted on Dec. 28, the committee of non-US Consumers of FTX.com stated that making the names and private information of non-US customers publicly available puts such customers at risk of identity theft, targeted assaults, and other damage.
In response to the filing, judge John Dorsey, on Jan. 11, allowed the names and addresses of the customers to be redacted for an additional three months, noting that he “remained reluctant at this point” to disclose the confidential information that may put creditors “at risk.”
However, Bloomberg, The Financial Times, The New York Times, and its parent firm, the Dow Jones & Company, are now working to make the private information of FTX’s clients outside the United States public.
The media outlets Bloomberg, The Financial Times, The New York Times, and its parent firm, the Dow Jones & Company, jointly objected to the customers being redacted in the filing submitted on April 4 to a Delaware Bankruptcy Court. They argued that the press and the general public have “a presumptive right of access to bankruptcy filings.”
The media outlets believe that FTX and its clients have not “justified such secrecy,” even though the debtors of FTX can ask for the names of creditors to be deleted in bankruptcy filings and have done so.
In the most recent submission, the media sites noted that if the “permanent sealing” of the users’ identities were legal because FTX and the Committee have asserted, then sealing consumers’ names would be expected in nearly every bankruptcy action.
The severity of the FTX collapse has ignited great public interest in the US judicial system’s attitude to the expanding and mostly unregulated cryptocurrency sector. The group added that public access was of the highest significance.
The sealing of the identities of FTX’s creditors to date has dramatically delayed reporting on and analysis of these proceedings, which according to the outlets, has left the public—and FTX’s creditors—mainly in the dark as to how the United States is enforcing its bankruptcy rules in the context of cryptocurrencies.
Similarly, the cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius attempted to ensure that the names of its customers remained redacted throughout its bankruptcy proceedings; however, it was unable to persuade the judge, which resulted in the disclosure of the personal details of thousands of customers on October 5, 2022.
The hearing on the issue is set on April 12.
