FILE PHOTO: Former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces fraud charges over the collapse of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, arrives on the day of a hearing at Manhattan federal court in New York City, U.S. January 3, 2023. REUTERS/David Dee Delgado/File Photo
(Reuters) - Crypto exchange FTX has recovered more than $5 billion in cash and liquid cryptocurrencies and securities, an attorney for the bankrupt company founded by Sam Bankman-Fried told a judge on Wednesday.
The company filed for bankruptcy in November and U.S. prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of orchestrating an "epic" fraud that may have cost investors, customers and lenders billions of dollars. Attorneys and advisers overseeing the bankrupt company are now trying to recover funds to repay creditors.
"We have located over $5 billion of cash, liquid cryptocurrency and liquid investments securities," Andy Dietderich, an attorney for FTX, told a U.S. bankruptcy judge in Delaware at the start of Wednesday's hearing.
Dietderich also said that the company plans to sell non-strategic investments that had a book value of $4.6 billion, although the company's books have been described as unreliable.
(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth in New York and Tom Hals in Wilmington, Del.; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi,l Matthew Lewis and Mark Porter)
