John Ray is a U.S. attorney and insolvency specialist. He is the current Chief Executive Officer of FTX. He is widely referred to by the title of ‘turnaround titan’ for his successful mopping up of some of the largest corporate collapses ever in the history of America.
Ray is best known for leading Enron Corporation, in oversewing its liquidation in bankruptcy proceedings. Enron is a U.S. energy company.
John Ray – Early Life & Education
John J. Ray III, born in January 1959 is 63 years old. His father was a union plumber and he grew up in Pittsfield in Massachusetts.
He graduated from the universities of the University of Massachusetts and Drake University.
John Ray – Professional Career
John Ray was the general counsel and chief administrative officer of the company, the Fruit of Loom between the years 1998 and 2002. It was following the company’s 1999 declaration of chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Fruit of the Loom is an American company that is a manufacturer of clothing, casual wear, and underwear. He formed Avidity Partners, a firm that specializes in enormous bankruptcies.
He is also known for overseeing the bankruptcy and restructuring proceedings of Pac-West Telecomm, National Century Financial Enterprises, Overseas Shipholding Group, and Nortel Networks.
Following the 2001 chapter 11 bankruptcy of Enron, Ray was made the chairman of the company. He served in that position between the years 2004 and 2009. His direction resulted in the company recovering a total of 828.9 million USD for its creditors. It was estimated as nearly 52 cents per dollar by Ray, himself.
Enron was one of the biggest American companies. It was regarded as a Wall Street Darling. The firm hit its rock bottom because of the fake holdings, and off-the-book accounting practices that fooled regulators.
The downfall of the company in the industry happened overnight. The company later became the Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. after the initiation of its insolvency proceedings. The chapter 11 bankruptcy declaration of Enron is to date the largest one ever.
John Ray handled the liquidation of Enron’s operations in a way that generated 20 billion USD back for the investors.
Later in 2003, he made an appearance there as a response to the call for the purpose of fighting back a civil lawsuit in opposition to Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and other banks that had been charged with the manipulation of the finances of Enron. As a result, an additional 7 billion USD was dispersed between the creditors.
From 2010 he had the position of being the principal officer of Nortel, a Canadian telecommunications company that had gone into bankruptcy.
In 2014, Ray received the appointment to become an independent board member of GT Advanced Technologies.
In 2016, Ray was entrusted with the duty of managing a trust that liquidated the asset of Residential Capital, a major company that offers the services of subprime mortgages.
FTX Trading Ltd, a cryptocurrency exchange and crypto hedge fund company, made the declaration of chapter 11 bankruptcy on 11 November 2022. On the same day, Ray was replaced as the CEO of the company, replacing Sam Bankman- Fried, its founder, and former CEO.
John Ray At FTX So Far
Placed as the CEO of FTX, his first action was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. He viewed it as an important step and said that it was for the
Development of the plans to restructure the crypto exchange. Following that action, Ray had appointed Sullivan and Cromwell, a renowned firm, as the restructuring advisors of FTX.
In addition to these actions, he had made an announcement that Alvarez and Marsal, a high-profile law firm, would be entrusted with the advisory role in the procedure of bankruptcy.
In the days that continued John Ray, despised and revealed the actions that were taken by Sam Bankman – Fried in managing FTX, which used to have the title of the internationally second-largest cryptocurrency exchange.
John Ray, in his bankruptcy filing reportedly said that he has never seen this kind of a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information. He posed questions about the accuracy of the balance sheets of FTX.
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He reportedly told them that they were unaudited and produced before the Debtors. It is said that he is having a plan to fully restructure the company which would include its audit, accounting, cybersecurity, cash management, human resources, risk management, data protection, and other systems that did not exist or did not exist to an appropriate degree.
As per the primary reports, it is suggested that FTX has no records or documents for $8 billion worthy of business. And that the company owes above one million to its creditors.
The headquarters of the FTX is in the Bahamas and the local law enforcement agencies are looking into the controversial exchange. The exchange is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Department of Justice, New York as well.
A rise in the lawsuits against the company and the founder and former CEO Sam Bankman- Fried is expected to grow in number in the coming days.
As per the review after many detailed analyses, the experts of the lawmaking said that it would be over a time of 4 years until the final settlement of the case.
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