The question of who owns the European unit of Sam Bankman-Fried’s former crypto enterprise appeared to be settled: Dubai-based Backpack Exchange said that it had purchased FTX EU after months of wrangling, Bloomberg News reported. Backpack, a crypto trading platform founded by one-time employees of Bankman-Fried’s FTX and Alameda Research businesses, said the $32.7 million acquisition would expand its derivatives offerings in the region. But according to the US-based FTX estate, the ownership situation is less clear.
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Nigerian Logistics Startup Gokada Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Amid Mounting Financial Challenges
Gokada, Nigeria’s largest-mile logistics delivery startup, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in 2024, Tekedia.com reported. The filing highlighted significant financial difficulties, with liabilities exceeding $5.4 million against assets valued at just over $564,000. According to the court documents, Gokada principal assets include its 100% ownership in Gokada Rides limited, it’s Nigerian operational entity which it valued at $500,000, and $64,132.56 in cash held in a Silicon Valley bank account.
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Backpack Exchange, a crypto trading platform founded by one-time employees of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX and Alameda Research businesses, has acquired the former European entity of the failed FTX exchange for $32.7 million to expand its derivatives offerings in the region, Bloomberg News reported. FTX EU was one of the business units that ended up as part of the bankruptcy after Bankman-Fried’s firm collapsed in 2022.
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The U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday it will share $50 million in forfeited assets with Estonia in recognition of Estonia's assistance in the successful prosecution of Danske Bank and related forfeiture, Reuters reported. The bank became the subject of several investigations after an internal probe in September 2018 uncovered about 200 billion euros ($207 billion) of payments made through its now-shuttered Estonian branch, with many payments appearing suspicious.
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Northvolt AB is asking for shareholder approval to keep building battery cells while the bankrupt electric-vehicle supplier seeks the new funding needed to emerge from chapter 11 protection, Bloomberg News reported. The extraordinary general meeting scheduled for Wednesday at Northvolt’s Stockholm headquarters is billed as a “procedural step” by the company. The gathering, announced in December, is required when equity falls below one-half of registered share capital, spokesman Martin Hofelmann said in an email.
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Cobalt miner Jervois Global said on Thursday that one of its lenders will take the company private as part of a pre-packaged bankruptcy, the latest Western miner scrambling to survive as competition from China intensifies, Reuters reported. U.S. fund manager Millstreet Capital Management will take control of Jervois as part of the pre-packaged chapter 11 filing, inject $145 million into the company and convert more than $100 million of loans into equity.
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Lawsuits by three firms seeking to improve their chances of obtaining proceeds in an auction of shares in Citgo Petroleum's parent can go ahead, a U.S. judge ruled in an order issued on Monday, Reuters reported. The decision could reduce the proceeds of any sale, the court officer overseeing the auction in federal court in Delaware had said in a motion seeking to block the parallel lawsuits. Shares in Citgo parent PDV Holding are being auctioned to repay $21 billion in claims for debt defaults and expropriations by Venezuela and state oil firm PDVSA. PDV is a U.S.
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Terraform Labs Pte. co-founder Do Kwon will be handed over to the US for prosecution, the government of Montenegro said, potentially ending a standoff over competing extradition demands by the US and Kwon’s native South Korea, Bloomberg News reported. “Most criteria envisaged by the law are in favor of the extradition demands from the institutions of the United States of America,” the Montenegro’s Justice Ministry said in statement posted on its website. It said Minister Bojan Bozovic made the decision on Friday, without specifying when the handover may take place.
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Sweden’s Intrum AB has struck an agreement with a noteholder group that could resolve a key obstacle in the debt collector’s bid to restructure in U.S. bankruptcy court, Bloomberg News reported. The company had “come to terms” with the group of debt holders ahead of a hearing in the US bankruptcy court, according to Andrew M. Leblanc, a company attorney. The agreement requires the consents of other parties, a process that’s currently underway, he said at a Monday hearing in Texas.
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The Biden administration transferred $20 billion to Ukraine on Tuesday, providing an urgently needed economic lifeline in the form of a loan that will be repaid using interest earned from Russia’s frozen central bank assets, the New York Times reported. The transfer of the funds comes as Ukraine is facing a period of grave uncertainty with President-elect Donald J. Trump poised to take office next month and Russia’s war continuing unabated. Mr.
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