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According to court documents, there was an FTX office across the street from the Treasury Department and the White House in D.C.
This makes it physically closer to key lawmakers than the offices of the Coin Center or the Blockchain Association, which are 10-minute and 25-minute drive away, respectively.
The office
Court filings talk about the office in question because the legal team of FTX is trying to obtain the permission of the judge to terminate a lease mutually with Metropolitan Square Associates, the owner of the property.
Once a company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, it is typical for it to sell property or end leases it does not believe will be necessary for its restructuring.
A lease had been signed by the parent firm of FTX’s businesses based in the US, West Realm Shires, on August 3rd, 2022 for 655 15th Street N.W, which will expire in 2028.
On Monday, documents filed in court showed that a security deposit worth $32,000 was paid by West Realm Shires for the ‘nonresidential’ property.
On Google Maps, the specific location is called Met Square and seems to be a WeWork co-working location. This means that companies are allowed to sign leases for private, permanent workspaces.
The terms
The legal team of FTX has proposed legal terms that would terminate the lease mutually, as of December 21st.
The security deposit would remain with Metropolitan Square on the condition that it will waive any other claims it may have against FTX.
The draft agreement of FTX also dictates that all personal property at the office would also be abandoned, with the exception of financial or business records, as long as no third-party claims it.
The FTX fiasco
Once the second-largest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume, FTX crashed in November 2022 after a report resulted in a selloff of its native FTT token.
According to the report, the balance sheet of its sister trading firm Alameda Research had billions of FTT tokens against liabilities in billions.
This caused the FTT token to crash and withdrawals on the FTX crypto exchange surged, which forced the company to admit that it did not have enough reserves to meet the demand.
It froze withdrawals and eventually filed for bankruptcy. Before this happened, the company had been quite optimistic about wielding its influence in D.C.
Kristin Smith, the Executive Director of the Blockchain Association, said that this meant that Sam Bankman-Fried was usually talking at, not talking to, other crypto lobbyists and stepping on their toes.
Smith said in December that a group of advocates and lobbyists had met for a strategy session where SBF showed up, talked for 45 minutes and then left.
Therefore, she said that most of the conversations were one-sided, but many thought that Sam Bankman-Fried was approachable.
She also clarified that neither FTX nor Bankman-Fried had ever been members of the Blockchain Association, but had seen SBF operate in DC.
He created opportunities for meeting lawmakers like hosting senators for breakfasts and joining congressional staffers for happy hour.
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