Binance and founder Changpeng Zhao are seeking records from Kevin O’Leary and author Michael Lewis as part of a $1.76 billion clawback case tied to FTX. Bloomberg Law reported the subpoenas on Nov. 5, citing a court notice filed Nov. 4 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The requests seek records and information. Former Forbes Digital Assets research director Steven Ehrlich and accounting firm BDO USA PC also received subpoenas.
Why the records matter
The case is being pursued by the FTX Recovery Trust and FTX Digital Markets Ltd. against Binance and Zhao. At issue is a July 2021 share repurchase covering a 20% stake in FTX’s international business and an 18.4% stake in its U.S. parent. The estate says Alameda Research funded the deal while FTX was already insolvent. Payment came in FTT, BNB, and BUSD tokens. The plaintiffs call it a fraudulent transfer and want at least $1.76 billion back. Binance and Zhao deny the claims and previously asked the court to dismiss them.
O’Leary and Lewis had close FTX ties
O’Leary was an FTX investor and paid spokesperson before the exchange collapsed in November 2022. A month later, he disclosed a promotional agreement worth about $15 million, said he had invested roughly $9.7 million in crypto, and noted more than $1 million in FTX equity that became worthless. Lewis spent substantial time with Sam Bankman-Fried while researching Going Infinite, his book on the FTX co-founder. The book came out in October 2023, nearly a year after the bankruptcy filing. His access to Bankman-Fried could be relevant to what he saw and heard, though the subpoenas may simply seek background material.
What survives in court
Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Karen B. Owens allowed the main recovery claims to proceed in an opinion dated July 24. She dismissed fraudulent-transfer counts against former Binance executives Samuel Wenjun Lim and Dinghua Xiao, plus some state-law claims against the Binance defendants. The remaining allegations against Zhao and four Binance entities survived. The trust has also filed a separate $1.15 billion clawback suit against Genesis Digital Assets and affiliates, alleging Alameda-funded investments used misappropriated customer money. Any recovery would go back to the FTX estate for creditor distribution.
The subpoenas are a discovery step. They do not decide the case. Still, they show how far the estate is willing to look for records about FTX’s final months and the payments that preceded its fall. Binance and Zhao continue to contest the core claim.
