Fenwick is adamant that it be left out of the fray. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.
“Plaintiffs’ core theory is as facile as it is flawed,” the firm wrote. “Fenwick is not liable for aiding and abetting a fraud it knew nothing about, based solely on allegations that Fenwick did what law firms do every day—provide routine and lawful legal services to their clients.”
FTX went bust in 2022 after it became clear that the crypto exchange was using client funds, its own FTT exchange token, and Robinhood shares to prop up its sister firm, Alameda Research.
The past couple years have seen FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison, former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison get a more lenient 2-year sentence as part of a plea deal, and billions repaid to the company’s creditors.
An independent FTX bankruptcy examiner reviewed hundreds of thousands of internal FTX documents, ultimately finding that Fenwick & West had “exceptionally close relationships” with FTX leadership and became “deeply intertwined” in the firm’s actions.
But the firm argued in its latest motion that the plaintiffs, a group of FTX investors, are making allegations “parroted from a report” on Sullivan & Cromwell, another law firm that advised FTX.
“But what Plaintiffs do not explain is that their allegations against Fenwick mirror those that they had earlier pursued quite aggressively against Sullivan & Cromwell, but then precipitously dismissed with prejudice,” Fenwick wrote.
decrypt.co
