From丨PWC
Compilation丨Jordan, PANews
After a long wait, FTX Joint Official Liquidator (JOL) PwC has updated its liquidation claims process and announced the launch of the FTX Digital Markets (the primary regulatory and licensing entity for the FTX International platform) claims portal.
Based on the disclosed information, FTX will notify eligible customer and non-customer creditors to submit proof of debt and other information through the FTX Digital Markets claims portal, and only customers who file electronic claims before the prescribed deadline of May 15, 2024 and Non-customer creditors are eligible for distribution of liquidation claim funds in The Bahamas proceedings if the relevant information is admitted.
FTX Liquidation Claims Timeline
Before starting to explore how to apply for FTX liquidation claims, let us sort out the timeline of the event a little bit——
On November 10, 2022, the Bahamas Securities Commission filed a liquidation petition against FTX Digital Markets Ltd. with the Commercial Court of the Supreme Court of the Bahamas and suspended its license to operate as a digital asset business. On the same day, FTX Digital’s liquidation process was officially launched.
On November 14, 2022, Kevin Cambridge of PwC Bahamas and Peter Greaves of PwC Hong Kong were also appointed as provisional liquidators by the Supreme Court of the Bahamas.
On February 15, 2023, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Delaware recognized the main proceeding of provisional liquidation in The Bahamas.
On November 10, 2023, after hearing evidence submitted by representatives of the Bahamas Securities Commission, the Joint Provisional Liquidators, and counsel representing FTX Trading Ltd., the Supreme Court of the Bahamas appointed the Joint Provisional Liquidators as Joint Official Liquidators (“JOL”) and The order is to liquidate FTX in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act 1992 (as amended) and the Companies (Winding Up Amendment) Act 2011 applicable to the liquidation of international business companies.
On March 3, 2024, the FTX claims portal was officially launched. Eligible customer and non-customer creditors must submit proof of debt to apply for claims on May 15, 2024.
FTX Liquidation Claims Guide
As the joint official liquidator of FTX, PwC has now officially launched the FTX Digital Markets claims portal. Eligible customers and non-customer creditors can log in to the website to submit relevant information for claims. A total of 5 steps are involved, as follows:
1. Account registration-Create a claim portal account
In order to submit a claim, you first need to create an account on the FTX Claims Portal. Once the account is created, you can link your FTX account, view your account balance and submit a liquidation claim. (Note: Users in Australia, Europe, Turkey or Japan may be processed under one of these separate processes.)
As required by FTX, creating an account requires providing contact information and details (including name, phone number and email address, date of birth and account opening, as shown above), as well as the type of claimant (including individual clients, institutional clients and non-client creditors) ,As shown below).
It should be noted here that individual customers refer to customers who make claims against "FTX.com" or "FTX International" in their own name; institutional customers refer to those who make claims against "FTX.com" or "FTX International" in the name of a company. Customers; non-customer creditors are transaction creditors who provide goods or services to FTX Digital (a small number of employees may fall into this situation). The registration information of these three types is different. Please refer to the figure below for details:
After successfully completing all the above information, click the "Next" button and you will see a pop-up window stating that an email has been sent with a "One-time PIN" that needs to be entered on the next page (as shown below), If you do not receive the email, please check your spam folder or you can click Resend Verification Email.
2. Register creditor and customer account details
To submit a claim, you will need to fill in additional details to register yourself as a creditor and link your FTX account to your newly minted FTX Digital claims portal account. Only if the FTX account is linked to the FTX Digital claims portal account, Cai can submit a claim for the FTX account and view the relevant account balance, and then choose to accept the balance figure, or dispute the balance figure and provide further details to Substantiate the amount of funds claimed.
Once you have set up your FTX Digital Claims Portal account, you can log in at any time using your username and password (pictured above), but you will need to receive another email containing a "one-time PIN", in effect, every time you log into the claims website. All require a "one-time PIN" via email to secure the account.
After logging in, you can go to the "Registration of Creditor and Customer Account Details" section and enter the following details:
Step 1: “Current Claimant Information” – Complete all required fields (name, date of birth, phone number, address, country or region of residence, occupation, nationality, ID number)
NOTE: Acceptable/recommended ID numbers are passport, national ID, and/or driver's license numbers, depending on the jurisdiction.
Step 2: Link FTX Account. Enter the email address of the FTX account. This will link the FTX account to an FTX Digital claims portal account. After entering the email address, a verification code will be sent to your linked email address. Verify that you have permissions for these accounts.
After successfully linking your FTX account, you will be able to view balance information for review.
3. Balance Acceptance – Accept or challenge the listed balance
After completing the FTX account association, you will be directed to the balance page, which displays the portfolio information and balance data of the related accounts in detail, as shown below:
At this time, you can choose to accept or question the balance number in the lower right corner of the page, and enter the following page:
If you dispute the balance (i.e. Dispute Portfolio), you will need to provide further details to substantiate the claim amount -
Part 1 (pictured below) - Customer/non-customer details, full name, primary residential address, primary contact phone number and email address (email address associated with the FTX account) must be entered.
Part 2 - Claim amount (USD or USD equivalent), details of the claim amount need to be entered.
Part 3 - The basis for the claim must be sold in detail and provide the reasons for the claim amount, and please attach relevant supporting documents to prove the claim funds. The uploaded file supports image (such as jpeg, png), PDF, Word or Excel (including CSV) format, but Email uploads (such as .msg format files) are not accepted. If emails are involved, they must be saved as PDF files and uploaded.
Section 4 - Claims Acquired/Transferred, if FTX assets were purchased from another party, the appropriate information must be noted.
Part 5 - Security, if any security (i.e. mortgage, charge or other security) is held in connection with the claim.
Users who complete the above steps, or directly confirm acceptance of the claim amount, will be taken to the dashboard page, which will confirm the claim amount and ask for the option to submit the information. Once you enter your name, identity, contact information and signature, and select Submit, the claim information cannot be modified.
4. Identity verification
The Joint Official Liquidators will implement anti-money laundering (“AML”) and know-your-customer (“KYC”) procedures to confirm that creditors have legal rights to their accounts and to help prevent fraudulent activity.
Client and non-client creditors are required to submit identity information and supporting documentation for review as part of KYC procedures, which help confirm creditor identities and accounts and enhance the security of FTX Digital’s claims process. Completing the KYC process is not the only factor that determines whether a claim can be paid, as in some jurisdictions there may be external restrictions on sending allocated funds.
Since this link is operated "backstage" by FTX and the official liquidator, the claimant does not need to take any action and will be notified via email once the identity verification is completed.
5. Liquidation and transfer of claimed assets
After the above process is completed, FTX Digital's claim will enter the formal adjudication process, and creditors will receive the results of the adjudication. Payment of the first interim dividend distribution is expected to be made at the end of 2024 or early 2025.
Safety reminder
When submitting relevant information, you must pay attention to the official website address information to prevent phishing and spam fraud. FTX creditors need to confirm the authenticity of the email information received and the legitimacy of the relevant emails. If necessary, you can go through the official website Email address for communication and confirmation of relevant information.
