Because Andres is still a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, the law firm that helped FTX in 2021, there is no longer a conflict of interest in the FTX case now that Judge Abrams has left it.
District Judge Ronnie Abrams dropped out of the case against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), which changed the direction of the case. After finding out that Abrams’s husband is a partner at a law firm that advised the crypto exchange in 2021, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York decided to stay out of the FTX case.
In a filing on December 23, Judge Abrams said that her husband, Greg Andres, is a partner at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he has worked since June 2019. The fact that the law firm had helped FTX in 2021 was also brought up.
Abrams also said that the law firm represented people in other legal cases who might be against FTX and SBF. “My husband hasn’t been involved in any of these claims,” she said, adding that the District Court doesn’t know about them because they are confidential.
“However, to avoid a possible conflict of interest or even the appearance of one, the Court is stepping away from this case.”
The fact that Andres is still a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell means that there is no longer a conflict of interest in the FTX case now that Judge Abrams has left it.
Andres used to be an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. There, he was in charge of criminal fraud cases and investigations into foreign bribery.
On December 22, SBF was given a $250 million bail bond based on a written promise to show up in court and not do anything illegal.
Funny how SBF is able to post the $250M bail not long after saying he only had $100k.
So he probably is using stolen customer deposits to stay out of jail.
— Benjamin Cowen (@intocryptoverse) December 22, 2022
But the bail made people curious because SBF had said before filing for bankruptcy that it had less than $100,000.
With the personal recognisance bail, Bankman-Fried was able to get out of jail without having to pay anything. The bail was set at the value of a property that his parents, a family member, and a family friend all owned.
