FTX sues Voyager Digital to recoup $446 million in debt payments due in 2022.

FTX, a bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, filed a lawsuit against Voyager Digital, a crypto lender, on Monday in an effort to recover $445.8 million in loan repayments that FTX made before going out of business in November 2022.

Both FTX and Voyager filed for bankruptcy after the collapse of the cryptocurrency markets in 2022, but Voyager's filing came four months earlier.

Voyager demanded recovery of all loans owed to FTX and its affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research after filing in July.

In a court document, FTX claimed that it had paid Voyager $248.8 million in September and $193.9 million in October on Alameda's behalf. In addition, FTX paid $3.2 million in interest in August, per its court documents.

FTX's complaint states that because those loan payments were made so soon after FTX filed for bankruptcy, they can be recouped and might be applied to pay off other FTX creditors.

When FTX, previously one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, filed for bankruptcy in November, it sent shockwaves through the industry and left an estimated 9 million customers and other investors facing losses in the billions of dollars.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the company's founder, has been charged with fraud, and a number of top executives, including Caroline Ellison, the CEO of Alameda Research, have admitted guilt. Innocence has been denied by Bankman-Fried, whose trial is set for October.

When Voyager and other crypto companies were destroyed in the summer of 2022, FTX first appeared to survive the crisis by positioning itself as a "white knight" who could calm the tumbling crypto markets. In a bankruptcy auction, FTX offered to purchase the Voyager platform; however, when FTX collapsed in November, the proposed acquisition was abandoned.

FTX admitted the claims that Alameda had allegedly stolen FTX customers' funds to pay for its reckless borrowing and lending in its court filing on Monday. Voyager and other cryptocurrency lenders, meanwhile, were accused of being complicit in Alameda's actions by "knowingly or recklessly" directing their clients' cash toward Alameda, according to the report.

According to FTX, "Voyager’s business model was that of a feeder fund. It solicited retail investors and invested their money with little or no due diligence in cryptocurrency investment funds like Alameda and Three Arrows Capital."

The founders of Three Arrows Capital, which also declared bankruptcy in 2022, have refused to work with the court-appointed liquidators who are attempting to recoup assets for Three Arrows clients.

By fLEXI tEAM