--- title: "Who ran FTX Trading Ltd.: directors, officers and the post-collapse board" language: en canonical: https://dossiertwist.com/dossiers/ftx-trading-ltd/directors-and-officers/ as_of: 2026-10-21 keywords: ["FTX Trading Ltd","FTX.com","FTX Trading Limited","Sam Bankman-Fried","Alameda Research","Paper Bird Inc.","Dotcom Silo","FTX Digital Markets","FTX Europe AG","FTX EU Ltd","FTX Japan","West Realm Shires","FTT","Chapter 11","FTX Recovery Trust","John J. Ray III","Caroline Ellison","Gary Wang","Nishad Singh","CFTC consent order"] --- # Who ran FTX Trading Ltd.: directors, officers and the post-collapse board **Question.** Who directed and controlled FTX Trading Ltd. before and after its collapse? **Answer.** According to the debtors' post-collapse reports, the FTX Group was run by Sam Bankman-Fried with Nishad Singh and Gary Wang, who controlled nearly every significant aspect of it, and many group companies never held board meetings. FTX Trading Ltd.'s filings name as directors Bankman-Fried, Singh, Arthur Thomas, a corporate director and, until June 2022, Jonathan Cheesman. On 10-11 November 2022 Bankman-Fried signed an Omnibus Corporate Authority and resigned, and John J. Ray III became chief executive with plenary authority; Ray appointed independent directors, including Judge Joseph Farnan and Matthew Doheny for the Dotcom Silo, and after the plan took effect the FTX Recovery Trust's trustees included Ray, Farnan, Doheny and Rishi Jain alongside others, among them FTX Digital Markets' liquidators Brian Simms and Peter Greaves. ## Control before the collapse - Analysis: The debtors' first interim report states that management and governance of the FTX Group was largely limited to Bankman-Fried, Singh and Wang, with Bankman-Fried viewed as having the final voice in all significant decisions and the other two largely deferring to him; the three, without experience in risk management or running a business, controlled nearly every significant aspect of the group, with isolated exceptions such as FTX Japan. Ray's first-day declaration adds that many group companies, especially those in Antigua and the Bahamas, lacked appropriate corporate governance and many never held board meetings. These are findings of the debtors' post-collapse management. [src-025] [src-001] - Analysis: FTX Trading's Form D of November 2021 names Bankman-Fried as executive officer and director and Jonathan Cheesman and Arthur Thomas as directors. Its statement of financial affairs lists the directors in control at filing as Thomas, Corporate & Trust Services Limited, Singh and Bankman-Fried, with Can Sun as general counsel and Paper Bird Inc. as controlling shareholder, and records that Daniel Friedberg left as chief regulatory officer on 9 November 2022 and Cheesman as director on 2 June 2022. The debtors later relied on a different record: according to FTX Trading's register of directors, they said, only Bankman-Fried and Singh were directors at filing, the others being former directors, and Singh resigned by email at 11:42 a.m. ET on 10 November 2022, leaving Bankman-Fried as sole director when he authorised the filing. They made that argument against motions by Patrick Gruhn, Robin Matzke and Lorem Ipsum UG, who had said FTX Trading had four directors; the motions were withdrawn in the 2024 settlement without a ruling on the point, and the register itself was not retained. [src-002] [src-011] [src-009] [src-067] [src-079] - Documented: FTX Trading Ltd.'s statement of financial affairs lists the people in control of the company when the case was filed as directors Arthur Thomas, Corporate & Trust Services Limited (Lower Factory Road, P.O. Box 990, Antigua and Barbuda), Nishad Singh and Samuel Bankman-Fried, general counsel Can Sun, and Paper Bird Inc. as controlling shareholder with 75.00%. Among those who left their positions in the year before filing, it lists Daniel Friedberg, chief regulatory officer until 9 November 2022, and Jonathan Cheesman, director until 2 June 2022. [src-011] - Qualification: Doc 2001 (filed 31 July 2023) un-redacts the debtors' schedules and statements of financial affairs; the debtors state that their responses may not include all transfers of cryptocurrency or other digital assets. - Analysis: Thomas was at the same time a member of the Eastern Caribbean Securities Regulatory Commission, which thanked him for over 15 years of service as commissioner from 2007, deputy chairman from 2010 and chairman from August 2020 until his resignation in November 2022; the Commission's notice does not mention FTX. An Antiguan news report describes him as a former chairman of Caribbean Union Bank and an Antiguan ambassador brought onto the FTX board in the summer of 2021 as a "highly qualified independent director", a date no filing confirms, and says that apart from Bankman-Fried, Cheesman and Thomas there was no true board, giving almost no visibility into the company's operations; no response from Thomas or Cheesman was retained. [src-010] [src-024] ## Payments to insiders and the books - Analysis: In answer to the question on payments to insiders in the year before filing, FTX Trading's statement of financial affairs lists 23 payments totalling $602,094.29 to its corporate director Corporate & Trust Services Limited; $772,100 to Cheesman in January 2022; $1.5 million to Caroline Ellison in January 2022; five payments totalling $83,750,009.38 to Patrick Gruhn; $6,000,000 to Kariya Kayamori; $1,500,000 to Ryan Salame and $3,000,000 to Singh in December 2021; and the issue to Singh on 15 November 2021 of 44,000,000 FTX Trading shares under the 2020 equity incentive plan, valued at $477,840,000, without payment of the exercise price. It also lists $8.56 million of gifts in 2021, including $8,000,000 to New Venture Fund. The debtors note that their schedules may not include all transfers of crypto assets. [src-011] - Analysis: The same statement names the accounting firm Robert Lee & Associates, LLP of San Jose as keeper of FTX Trading's books from 11 November 2020, its role described as "transitioning", alongside three individual bookkeepers. [src-011] - Documented: FTX Trading Ltd.'s statement of financial affairs lists the accountant firm Robert Lee & Associates, LLP of San Jose, California, as having maintained its books and records from 11 November 2020, with its role described as "transitioning", alongside three individual bookkeepers, two of whom left on 10 November 2022. [src-011] - Qualification: Doc 2001 (filed 31 July 2023) un-redacts the debtors' schedules and statements of financial affairs; the debtors state that their responses may not include all transfers of cryptocurrency or other digital assets. ## The handover and the new board - Analysis: By an Omnibus Corporate Authority dated 10 November 2022, Bankman-Fried, as controlling owner or officer of West Realm Shires Inc., Paper Bird Inc., FTX Trading Ltd, Alameda Research LLC, Clifton Bay Investments LLC and other companies and their subsidiaries, authorised the appointment of John J. Ray III as chief executive with plenary authority, including to file under Chapter 11, and proposed Stephen Neal as chairman with new unaffiliated directors; the record does not show that Neal took up the post. At about 4:30 a.m. on 11 November 2022 Bankman-Fried agreed to resign and Ray became the debtors' chief executive with all corporate powers. Paper Bird ratified the arrangements as FTX Trading's controlling shareholder on 21 November 2022, and the independent directors of the Dotcom Silo, Judge Joseph Farnan and Matt Doheny, ratified Ray's appointment and the petitions on 22 December 2022. Ray also placed Paper Bird and two other companies in the Ventures Silo and appointed Rishi Jain their sole director. [src-001] [src-005] [src-009] [src-020] - Analysis: After the plan took effect, the FTX Recovery Trust was run by trustees listed with their occupations in an undated schedule filed with the SEC: Matthew Doheny, Judge Joseph Farnan (ret.), Peter Greaves of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Rishi Jain of Accordion, John J. Ray III, Matthew Rosenberg of Lincoln Park Advisors, Brian Simms KC of Lennox Paton, Mitchell Sonkin of the ResCap Liquidating Trust and Paul Copley; Simms and Greaves were also liquidators of FTX Digital Markets. Professional profiles describe Farnan, a former judge, as often chosen as an independent director or trustee, including for FTX.com. [src-021] [src-040] [src-068] [src-097] [src-103] [src-110] [src-111] ## Sources - [src-025] Court record source · src-025 - [src-001] Court record source · src-001 - [src-002] FTX Trading Ltd. Form D notice of exempt offering of securities, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2021-11-02 - [src-011] Court record source · src-011 - [src-009] Court record source · src-009 - [src-067] Court record source · src-067 - [src-079] Court record source · src-079 - [src-010] Media source · src-010 - [src-024] Regulatory record source · src-024 - [src-005] Court record source · src-005 - [src-020] Court record source · src-020 - [src-021] Schedule I, trustees of FTX Recovery Trust (Exhibit 99.1), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission - [src-040] Other source · src-040 - [src-068] Court record source · src-068 - [src-097] Other source · src-097 - [src-103] Other source · src-103 - [src-110] Other source · src-110 - [src-111] Other source · src-111