A cryptocurrency exchange has gone bankrupt. According to an attorney for the firm, FTX has located assets worth more than $5 billion (£4.1 billion).
However, a US bankruptcy court was informed on Wednesday that the extent of customer losses is still unknown.
Prosecutors have charged FTX’s former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried with masterminding a “epic” fraud that could have cost investors, customers, and lenders billions of dollars.
Mr Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to charges of defrauding investors.
“We have located over 5 billion dollars of cash, liquid cryptocurrency, and liquid investment securities,” Andy Dietderich, an attorney for FTX, told US Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey in Delaware.
Mr Dietderich said that the recovered funds do not include assets seized by the Securities Commission of the Bahamas, where FTX was based and where Mr Bankman-Fried was living at the time of his arrest.
Most of FTX’s customers and investors who are facing losses have not been named in the hearings.
However, American football star Tom Brady, his former wife Giselle Bündchen and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft were mentioned in court filings.
In December the 30-year-old was arrested in the Bahamas and extradited to the US. He has been accused of committing “one of the biggest financial frauds in US history.”
FTX, which a year ago was valued at $32 billion, filed for bankruptcy protection on November 11. It has been estimated that $8 billion of customer funds were missing.
US federal prosecutors have accused Mr. Bankman-Fried of misappropriating FTX customers’ funds to pay debts at his cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research and to make other investments.
In December prosecutors announced eight criminal charges, including wire fraud, money laundering and campaign finance violations. Financial regulators have also brought claims against Mr Bankman-Fried.
FTX co-founder Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, the former head of Alameda, have also been charged over their alleged roles in the company’s collapse. Authorities said they were both cooperating with the investigation.
In late December, Mr Bankman-Fried was released from detention on a $250 million bail on the condition that he not leave his parents’ home in California.
In an interview with BBC News before his arrest, he said: “I didn’t knowingly commit fraud.” I don’t think I committed fraud. I didn’t want any of this to happen. I was certainly not nearly as competent as I thought I was.”