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Good morning everyone, this is Judge Dorsey.

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We're on the record in FTX Trading Limited, case number 22-11068.

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Before we start, let me just remind everyone this is a formal court proceeding even though

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we are pursuing it virtually, so disruptions will not be tolerated.

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So please keep your lines on mute unless you're speaking and your camera's off unless you're

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one of the parties participating in the discussion.

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And with that, I will turn it over to Debtors' Council.

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Good morning, Your Honor.

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This is Brian Gluckstein of Sullivan and Cromwell for the Debtors.

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Can you hear me okay?

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Yes, thank you.

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Thank you, Your Honor, good morning.

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As reflected on the amended agenda that we filed at Docket 232, we have only a short

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remaining agenda of three matters for today with the remaining items scheduled either

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being resolved or adjourned to the January 11th hearing.

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Your Honor, I propose to just proceed in order of what we have remaining on the agenda if

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that's okay with the Court.

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With respect to the first item up today, agenda item four, is the Debtors' Motion to Seal

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Indemnification and Exculpation Motion.

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The motion to seal was filed at Docket 95.

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Your Honor, we recall that at the November 22nd hearing, the Court entered an interim

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order at Docket number 141 at the Debtors' request, sealing the Debtors' Motion, authorizing

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certain indemnification and exculpation in connection with the Debtors' asset recovery

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efforts and the interim order granting that motion, which was, which were filed at Docket

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numbers 94 and 140 respectively.

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The Debtors have made significant progress locating and securing digital assets, and

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that work remains ongoing.

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Nonetheless, the Debtors are comfortable that at this point in their work, when also considering

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the need for transparency in these Chapter 11 cases, that the motion and interim order

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can be unsealed at this time.

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As a result, the Debtors are not requesting further sealing of the motion and interim

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order on a final basis, and therefore request that the Court unseal those documents at this

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time.

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The Debtors' request for entry of a final order with respect to the Indemnification

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Motion itself is scheduled to be heard at our second day hearing on January 11th.

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All right.

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Does anyone wish to be heard?

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All right.

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I will enter the order to unseal those pleadings.

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Thank you, Your Honor.

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The next item up this morning is agenda item number 6, which is the amended motion of certain

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media outlets to intervene in these proceedings for a limited purpose, and I'll cede the

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podium to the movements.

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Mr. Finger?

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Good morning, Your Honor.

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David Finger on behalf of the opposed intervenors.

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May it please the Court?

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I believe Your Honor has some historical familiarity with access motions.

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I don't know how much your auntie tell you I want to go into a motion to intervene aspect

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of it.

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Certainly the courts of this district and the appellate to the Third Circuit all recognize

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intervention as an appropriate means to deal with access cases.

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They find it uncommon.

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We share an interest with the public as the eyes and the ears of the public, and there's

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no need for an independent basis for jurisdiction.

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The claim is under constitutional rights as well as federal common law, and therefore

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we satisfy the requirements for intervention.

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Moving to the motion to unseal, I note yesterday, Your Honor, that the trustee identified the

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members of the creditors committee, and those names were not under seal, so we're already

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starting a process of names dribbling out, and the point I made in the motion is that

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names are going to come out eventually, and there's no basis for distinguishing between

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names that voluntarily come out with those who are on the list.

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That's not the standard for sealing or unsealing the actions they have taken.

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Well, Mr. Finger, let me stop you for a second.

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I think the only thing on the agenda for today was the motion to intervene, and I will be

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scheduling a hearing on the motion to unseal, and I also saw that the committee was appointed

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yesterday, so we can now—that was what I was waiting for, for a committee to be appointed.

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Obviously, they're going to have to retain counsel and get up to speed before we have

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a hearing on this, because this is something they're going to want to weigh in on, but

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let me just stick with the amended motion to intervene, and I've read those papers.

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Is there any objection?

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I made the objection deadline today at the hearing.

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Is anyone objecting to the motion to intervene?

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Your Honor, Brian Gluckstein, Sullivan-Crohn, for the debtors, just very briefly.

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The debtors do not object to the media outlets intervening for the sole purpose of permitting

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the court to hear their objection to the debtor's motion for an order authorizing the action

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of individual information.

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As Your Honor notes, that motion is not being heard on the merits today.

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It will be heard at a future hearing.

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The debtors do reserve all rights with respect to standing, and otherwise, in the event that

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the media interveners seek to intervene more broadly in the case, but with respect to being

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heard on this motion, we don't have any objection.

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Anyone else wish to be heard?

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And Mr. Finger, I assume the media outlets are only seeking to intervene for purposes

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of this ceiling motion.

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Is that correct?

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That's correct, Your Honor.

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Okay.

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They reserve a right to seek to intervene in case there are other ceiling issues that

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come up or other matters for media of interest, but for now, this is limited to objecting

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to the proposed order of ceiling names and addresses of creditors.

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Okay.

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I will approve that order.

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Do we have a form of order uploaded that the parties agree on?

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I'm not sure that I'm on, but I will certainly contact Mr. Gluckstein when this is over and

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make sure that we have something that is agreeable to everyone.

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Okay.

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Go ahead and confer and upload the order.

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No need to do it under COC.

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I'll enter the order once it gets uploaded.

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Thank you, Your Honor.

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Okay.

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Okay, Mr. Gluckstein, and I will come back to the, we'll talk about the scheduling of

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that motion in a moment, but let me go back to Mr. Gluckstein.

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Gluckstein?

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Yes.

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Thank you, Your Honor.

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The only other item on the agenda for this morning is the status conference with respect

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to the motion of the JPLs of FTX digital markets.

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Did you want to address scheduling before we handle that or at the end?

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Well, why don't we do that?

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I mean, the only thing I was going to say about scheduling is, I was wondering if you

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were on, Ms. Sarkeesian, is to have the parties meet and confer with the committee once committee

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council is appointed so that we can get something on the books.

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I don't want this to linger out there too long.

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I think it's something that does need to be addressed in a fairly timely manner.

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Obviously, we're going to be into January before that happens, but I also want to make

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sure the committee's council is comfortable with its ability to properly address that

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motion.

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So I just ask Mr. Gluckstein and Ms. Sarkeesian if you could meet and confer with the committee's

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council once we know who they are and then contact chambers for a hearing date.

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Your Honor, if I could address the court briefly.

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Sure, go ahead.

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I'm Julia Sarkeesian for the U.S. Trustee.

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At the hearing earlier this week, I believe your honor suggested scheduling that hearing

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for starting at 9 a.m. on January the 11th.

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Initially, I think there's an omnibus hearing for 10 a.m. and you suggested 9 a.m. because

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potentially this hearing could have, there's some aspect of it that will be evidentiary.

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Is that something that we could sort of put a pin on and have that reserved so that assuming

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that date is okay for the committee that we can move forward then?

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Yeah, I do have, I have it blocked in my calendar beginning at 9 30 on the 11th, but we can

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start at 9.

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I think we, you had indicated, Ms. Sarkeesian, at the last hearing that 9 30 would work better

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for you, so I set it for 9 30, but we can make it 9 if we think this is going to run

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over with all the other motions that are going to be on for that day.

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I leave that to debtor's counsel to address.

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I can get, I can, 9 o'clock is manageable for me.

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I can make it work.

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Okay.

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Mr. Landis?

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You're muted.

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You're muted, Mr. Landis.

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Sorry, no longer, no matter how long we do this, Your Honor, I need to be reminded to

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click unmute.

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Adam Lantz from Landis, Rath and Cobb and we have the debtors.

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We were anticipating, Your Honor, starting at 9.

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Ms. Sarkeesian had indicated that she could make it work and based on the length of the

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agenda and the nature of the matters going forward, we thought we were going to need

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the time, so we would appreciate the court's indulgence to start at 9.

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Okay.

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We'll start at 9 and we'll at least block out including the seal motion on for that

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day subject to the committee's counsel coming in and saying they need more time.

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Thank you, Your Honor.

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Okay.

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Mr. Brown, did you hear me?

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I see you turned your camera.

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You're muted, Mr. Brown.

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I wish I had a dollar for every time I said that in the last three years.

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You could read as higher.

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Can your honor hear me now?

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You're muted still.

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It sounded like you had two microphones open at the same time there.

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You were getting feedback.

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Can your honor hear me now?

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Yes.

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Okay.

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I'm sorry, Your Honor.

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My Zoom requires me to dial in as well.

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That's the technical issue on my end.

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You're going to have to speak up.

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I'm sorry.

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I'm sorry.

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I'm sorry.

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I'm sorry.

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I'm sorry.

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I'm sorry.

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I'm sorry.

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I'm sorry.

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I'm sorry.

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I'm sorry.

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I'm sorry.

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I'm sorry.

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I'm sorry.

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I'm sorry.

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I'm sorry.

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I'm sorry.

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I'm sorry.

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I apologize.

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I apologize.

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You're going to have to speak up.

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Your Honor, I represent.

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You're going to have to speak up a little, Mr. Browning.

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Get the microphone closer.

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I represent one of the members of the committee and not on behalf of the committee, but just

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reporting to the Court that the committee is meeting and going through its processes

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and expects to select council a given Monday or Tuesday or next week.

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I just wanted the Court and parties to be aware of that.

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Okay.

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All right. Are there any other scheduling issues we need to discuss at this point? I

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don't have anything on my list that needs to be scheduled.

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Not from the debtor's perspective, Your Honor.

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Okay. All right. Let's go ahead with the status conference then.

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Thank you, Your Honor. For that I'll turn it over to my partner, Mr. Bromley.

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Okay.

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Good morning, Your Honor. James Bromley of Sullivan and Cromwell on behalf of the debtors.

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We gave room before Your Honor a couple of days ago with respect to the request by the

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joint – I'm sorry – the joint provisional liquidators from the Bahamas. We had a meeting

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yesterday in New York which included representatives of the debtors, the joint provisional liquidators,

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and the Securities Commission of Bahamas, both principals and counsel. And while we

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haven't come to any conclusions, we did have a productive exchange of views. We have

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a proposal from the joint provisional liquidators. The debtors will be responding to that proposal.

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And at the moment, Your Honor, we don't have a solution, but we're certainly working

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in good faith to see if we can get to a solution. For the moment, I think it makes sense to

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continue to hold the date of January 6th. It is certainly our hope that we might be

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able to have a solution prior to that. And notwithstanding the holidays, we'll be working

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towards trying to come to that conclusion. But at the moment, Your Honor, I think we

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need to continue to hold that date.

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Okay. Thank you. Mr. Zuckeed?

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Good morning, Your Honor. Jason Zecke of White and Case on behalf of the joint provisional

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liquidators. First matter, Mr. Schor sends his apologies. He is about three doors down

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from you, I think, in a different courtroom on a long scheduled hearing, so you're stuck

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with me. Mr. Brunley is correct. We did have a meeting. Principals and counsel did attend.

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Mr. Ray attended. We very much appreciated that. And we are hopeful that we'll be able

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to work this out. But if I just could raise a couple of issues so Your Honor can understand

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from our client's perspective in case we do need to move forward. First, we believe that

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the proposal we made with respect to the information addresses all of the issues that were raised

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by Mr. Brunley earlier this week. And so we are hoping that the debtors consider that

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in good faith and that we are able to come to an agreement because this is critically

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important from our client, Your Honor. This is a threshold issue for them. They need access

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to their debtors' books and records in order to do their job as court appointed fiduciaries.

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And so from our perspective, it will be really important that this issue with regard to the

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information gets considered on its own merits and isn't tied together with other parts of

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the case. There are a lot of issues in the case that will have to be dealt with. And

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that will all come in time. But we believe that our request for information, which we

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believe is quite unremarkable, should be considered on its own and not tied together with other

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issues. On timing, Your Honor, I know that Your Honor has set this for the 6th, and so

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we will proceed on that schedule. From our perspective, this really is an urgent matter.

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And so while we are happy to work with the debtors, from our perspective, we cannot have

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the issue of the information slip past the 6th. And so to the extent we are not able to

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come to an agreement, what we really need to avoid from our perspective is having this

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kind of drag out so that we can't even really begin to do our job in the Bahamas for any

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longer, because this is really interfering with the ability of the liquidators to do

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their job. And so that's why the timing, from our perspective, is so important. And I

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think it's important to note that in any international case like this, there are a

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multitude of jurisdictions that have legitimate and important interests. And that certainly

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includes the Bahamas. Remember, these are Bahamian entities. Our clients are the

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trustees for a Bahamian entity. And the Bahamian legal system is an independent legal

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system that should be respected. And there have been a lot of allegations and aspersions

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thrown around directed at the Bahamas, the Bahamian government, the Bahamian legal system.

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And we'll deal with that in good time if necessary. If we get to the 6th, we think the

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evidence will show that those allegations are wholly without merit. In fact, as Mr.

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Schor pointed out, one of the allegations that the debtors raised in connection with

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in response to this motion to shorten that the Bahamians were somehow facilitating payments

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off the system to Bahamian residents in preference to other creditors. When we look at the

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evidence, they have that exactly backwards. And our clients were appointed specifically

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as part of an effort to stop such activity. And so we do think that to the extent that

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there have been allegations of any improper conduct by our clients or by the Bahamian

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system as a whole, at the right time, the evidence will show that's entirely unfounded.

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And then the last point I want to make, Your Honor, just so that you can understand this

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from my client's perspective. My clients are independent court-appointed fiduciaries

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for the Bahamian estate that had no involvement in this matter prior to their appointment

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and the commencement of these bankruptcy proceedings. They are charged under Bahamian law

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with investigating what happened and the information that is requested by this motion, which again

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is the information that belongs to the debtors over which they have been charged and given

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responsibility, is fundamental to their ability to do that investigation. And we found ourselves

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in a situation which again, from their perspective, is a little bit upside down, where the debtors,

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even with regard to the information that belongs to the Bahamian entity, the debtors have set

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themselves up as a gatekeeper here. And while I'm certainly-

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Mr. Zecchia, I'm going to cut you off because we're getting into the merits of the issues

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here. And we have a hearing date on the 6th. I'm going to talk a little bit more about

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that date and what's going to happen leading up to it. But let's, you know, this is not

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the time to make those arguments. So the evidence will show what the evidence shows if we get

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to the 6th. And that's what I will base my decision upon at that time. So with that,

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hold on, Mr. Zecchia. So at this point, what I want to know is, have, is the briefing complete

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on the motion to lift the stay and turn over Mr. Bromley's shaking his head? I haven't

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seen a response from the debtors yet. Is that correct, Mr. Bromley?

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That's correct, Your Honor. We did file an objection to the motion to shorten. We have

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not filed an objection to the motion to compel. And we would like to have a schedule to do

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that.

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And, Your Honor, just on that point, if I, and this might help with Mr. Bromley's response,

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one of the things that we will do if we proceed on the 6th, Your Honor, I know that the live

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access versus static access was a hot issue. And while, again, we don't agree with the

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debtors' concerns, in order to simplify this hearing, for purposes of the 6th, what we

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will be seeking is static access, not live access. We think that that makes the issues

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simpler and cleaner. And so we would be amending the relief we sought in the motion to seek

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at this point, without prejudice, to seek live access later, simply static access at

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this point. Hopefully that makes the issues simpler.

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It sounds like it might, but I'll leave that to Mr. Bromley. That's an issue for him to

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address with his clients. So for the briefing schedule, we have a hearing date on the 6th.

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Mr. Bromley, when do you want to file your response to the motion to compel?

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Your Honor, the 6th is a Friday. We would like to be able to file our response on the

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morning of the 4th, which is Wednesday, so 9 a.m. on the 4th.

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I won't give much time for Mr. Zacchi to file a reply brief. Why don't we make it...

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With my mind, Your Honor.

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Why don't we make it... Why don't we make your brief to Mr. Bromley on the 30th, and

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then if there's a reply, that will be on the 4th, and that gives me a couple days to review

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before I have to go into the hearing.

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Certainly we will meet those dates, Your Honor.

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Okay. And we have... This will obviously be a live hearing with, well, hybrid, I guess,

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people who want to participate, who aren't going to be actively participating in the

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hearing on the 6th, can appear virtually, but the main parties to the case, and certainly

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the witnesses, must appear live in the courtroom.

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I understand, Your Honor.

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Same goes for, I think, the second day hearings, just to go off this issue for a while. The

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second day hearings, Mr. Bromley, are we anticipating... Well, now that we may have the issue on

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sealing, I assume we're going to have witnesses, so that will probably have to be a hybrid

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hearing as well, so just so everybody knows ahead of time.

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Yes, Your Honor.

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Okay. All right. So anything else on the schedule before we adjourn?

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Just with respect to the hearing on the 6th, if we do have to go forward, what I would

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propose, Your Honor, is on the 30th, when we file our response, that that also be the

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date that the parties would exchange names of testifying witnesses for the hearing on

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the 6th.

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Yes, absolutely. And to the extent you can agree on stipulated facts and exhibits and

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the admissibility of exhibits, we should also do that on the 30th as well. So we could have...

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Why don't we just go ahead and have kind of a pre-trial order that lays out what the

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agreed upon facts are, what the disputed facts are, what the witnesses are in a brief

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statement of what they're going to testify about, and exhibits, lists of exhibits, whether

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they're agreed to or not. And that way I can address any objections to the exhibits at

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the beginning of the hearing on the 6th.

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Very good, Your Honor.

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Okay.

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And Your Honor, just with regard to scheduling, and I don't know if you want to deal with

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this now, we spoke I think on Wednesday as to the scheduling of the recognition hearing.

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I asked about it.

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Yeah, I thought Chambers had given us the 13th of January as a date for that. I didn't

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know if that still works for the Court or the Dutters.

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It's not on my calendar.

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I didn't know if you wanted a second hour if we should work with Chambers offline to

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accomplish that.

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Work with Chambers and Dutters Council, and obviously you're going to have to have the

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committee's counsel as well on that one.

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Yeah, Your Honor, with respect to the recognition, certainly it is our hope that we'll be able

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to resolve issues that exist between the parties. But if we are not able to, we do not consent

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to go forward on the 13th. We will need discovery with respect to the recognition hearing. So

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our view is that what we should do at best is have a scheduling hearing with respect

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to discovery. We will need to take discovery not only of the Joint Provisional Liquid Orders,

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but also other parties in the Bahamas if we do decide to go forward on that basis.

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All right, we'll let the parties meet and confer along with the committee council. And

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then if you need to have a scheduling conference, come back and we'll do that.

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Yeah, and I would just suggest, Mr. Bromley, if there's discovery they need and they want

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to get started, they can get started. Again, we're going to want, Your Honor, to be able

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to deal with these issues in a timely manner. And I know we don't have to resolve that here,

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but it's going to prejudice our clients if these things just get pushed up indefinitely.

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Well, it sounds like the parties are talking to each other, and hopefully the cooperation

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will continue, including discovery issues. I don't want to have to spend my holiday while

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I'm traveling having to have a conference call about the discovery dispute. So hopefully

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the parties can agree on discovery issues. All right. Anything else before we adjourn?

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Nothing from the debtors, Your Honor.

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Okay. All right. Well, thank you all very much. We're adjourned. I guess our next, we

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won't get together until the 6th, if that goes forward. Hopefully the parties can resolve

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it, but if not, I'm prepared to go forward on the 6th. All right. Well, thank you all

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very much. Enjoy the holidays, and I will see everybody next year. We're adjourned.

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Thank you, Your Honor.