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Comment by jerf | Hacker News Reader

The filing is amazing: https://pacer-documents.s3.amazonaws.com/33/188450/042020648...

Don't forget to read this with the "diplomatic/legal/lawyer" mindset. These are not internet comments, these are legal filings. Sentences like "Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here. From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented." are not the words of someone seeking updoots, this is a very serious individual in a serious legal filing. Read this way this entire filing is filled with zingers and knee-slappers. Truly an amazing work.

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I mean, my experience reading legal filings is that lawyers love to throw in these "zingers", in no small part because it is their job to present the most brutal version of the argument on their side. One of my favorite legal filings ever was "Six Ways Buzzfeed Has Misled the Court (Number Two Will Amaze You) … and a Picture of a Kitten".

Yes, sorry, I didn't mean to say this never happens, just wanted to help orient people as to what they look like and calibrate expectations.

Though I would point out this is nominally not an adversarial filing. In practice, though, if I were FTX's CEO I would certainly be treating it as such, and he clearly is. This is sticky radioactive waste and I would be taking any measures necessary to keep it off of me.

This guy is FTX's CEO. The reason he is saying this is because the former CEO and employees appear to have stolen large amounts of money from the company.

For the curious:

https://wapo.st/3GmTZJH (no paywall)

The article links to a PDF of the court filing, including this One Weird Trick:

> In a somewhat remarkable Motion to Dismiss, Plaintiffs Buzzfeed, Inc. (“Buzzfeed”) and Ben Smith (“Mr. Smith”) intimate that their ties to Florida are so sparse that, collectively, they can barely find Florida on a map and that, as a result, the present case should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction or transferred to the Southern District of New York.

> I mean, my experience reading legal filings is that lawyers love to throw in these "zingers", in no small part because it is their job to present the most brutal version of the argument on their side.

This is filed by FTX’s new CEO, who took over when SBF was convinced/forced to hand over the reins.

He puts this in not to be brutal (which isn't the job), but to frame (with more detail throughout) why it will take unusual time to do basic tasks like identifying FTX's assets, liabilities, major creditors, and employees to the bankruptcy court.

A few favorites:

The Debtors did not have the type of disbursement controls that I believe are appropriate for a business enterprise. For example, employees of the FTX Group submitted payment requests through an on-line ‘chat’ platform where a disparate group of supervisors approved disbursements by responding with personalized emojis.

The audit firm for the Dotcom Silo was Prager Metis, a firm with which I am not familiar and whose website indicates that they are the “first-ever CPA firm to officially open its Metaverse headquarters in the metaverse platform Decentraland.”

Mr. Bankman-Fried, whose connections and financial holdings in the Bahamas remain unclear to me, recently stated to a reporter on Twitter: “F* regulators they make everything worse” and suggested the next step for him was to “win a jurisdictional battle vs. Delaware”.

Hey look at that! Someone was actually using the Metaverse, and for a financial auditing business no less! Zuckerberg should be patting himself on the back over that milestone achievement.

>The audit firm for the Dotcom Silo was Prager Metis, a firm with which I am not familiar and whose website indicates that they are the “first-ever CPA firm to officially open its Metaverse headquarters in the metaverse platform Decentraland.”

You're not kidding.

mic drop, he doesn't even feel the need to explain the impact of this statement lmfao

It was actually this line that makes me wonder about the new CEO's intent. Below is from the 'about us' page of Prager Metis. I read that funny line in a tweet, then found below after a search & 3 clicks. He missed this or is below all lies?

Our History

Prager and Fenton has provided expert accounting and advisory services for over a century, focusing on the entertainment and music industry, professional practice firms, real estate groups, and private wealth individuals.

Prager Metis CPAs, was formed in January 2013 by the combination of Prager and Fenton LLP and Metis Group LLC—two highly-respected accounting firms who found their deep-rooted practices to be both philosophically and culturally complementary.

Founded in 1987, Metis Group is known for their “team approach” to creating financial security for their clients, and provides a full range of accounting and tax services including forensic accounting, business and strategic planning, and litigation support.

https://pragermetis.com/about-us/overview/

This is art:

-'The audit firm for the Dotcom Silo was Prager Metis, a firm with which I am not familiar and whose website indicates that they are the “first-ever CPA firm to officially open its Metaverse headquarters in the metaverse platform Decentraland.”'

-'The Debtors did not have the type of disbursement controls that I believe are appropriate for a business enterprise. For example, employees of the FTX Group submitted payment requests through an on-line ‘chat’ platform where a disparate group of supervisors approved disbursements by responding with personalized emojis. '

One of my favorites is "McDonald's is best known for its world-famous burgers, fries, and broken ice cream machines. The problem is so widespread that even the McDonald's communications team has tweeted about the issue."

https://www.scribd.com/document/562063724/Kytch-v-McDonald-s...

> are not the words of someone seeking updoots, this is a very serious individual in a serious legal filing

eh. until a criminal trial occurs, these really are just updoots. the gravity of this doesn't change that people write colorful language for clout in the process. if you're read enough filings like this, you'll have seen it all.

The corporate structure chart at the end is rather stunning.

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