Mr. Bromley told Judge Dorsey that on Thursday Mr. Bankman-Fried had posted “two long and rambling tweets” attacking the law firm.
Judge Dorsey remarked that he wasn’t on Twitter, so he had not seen them.
The judge also said he was giving no credence to a filing late Thursday by Daniel Friedberg, FTX’s former regulatory lawyer. Mr. Friedberg said Sullivan & Cromwell should not be retained as FTX’s counsel because of its past work for the exchange.
Mr. Friedberg said Mr. Miller, the former Sullivan & Cromwell lawyer who had been employed at FTX’s U.S. subsidiary, had once told him that he was channeling business to his former employer in the hope he might return to the big law firm as a partner someday.
Judge Dorsey was not impressed with Mr. Friedberg’s filing.
“It’s full of hearsay, speculation and rumor,” the judge said. “It is not something I would allow to be introduced into evidence.”
Earlier this month, Judge Dorsey also dismissed a letter filed by Senators John Hickenlooper, Cynthia Lummis, Thom Tillis and Elizabeth Warren, who raised questions about Sullivan & Cromwell’s potential conflicts of interest. Judge Dorsey said the letter was “inappropriate” for the senators to send to the court.
Sullivan & Cromwell has played a crucial role throughout the collapse of FTX. In the days leading up to the bankruptcy, the firm worked with company officials on plans for a potential Chapter 11 filing. The law firm also recommended the names of a few restructuring experts who could take over the company in bankruptcy, including John J. Ray III, a veteran of corporate turnarounds who ultimately got the job after Mr. Bankman-Fried stepped down.
In a court filing this week, Sullivan & Cromwell responded to Mr. Bankman-Fried’s claims that he was pressured, saying the FTX founder agreed to tap Mr. Ray after consulting with his father, who is a law professor, and three other lawyers.
Since the bankruptcy filing, Sullivan & Cromwell has had more than 200 lawyers, paralegals and other staff working on the FTX case, with the most senior lawyers charging $2,165 an hour, court records show. .
Sumber: www.nytimes.com
