On January 9 Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) sent a letter to U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge John Dorsey calling for an independent examiner in the FTX bankruptcy case. They cited a potential conflict with the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell leading the exchange’s investigation after it had previously advised the company. The letter calls for a “strong, objective, and disinterested examiner” because the collapse of FTX is “simply too large and too important to be left to an internal investigation.”

Update: January 11 — The judge in the FTX bankruptcy case said that the bipartisan letter sent by four U.S. senators this week calling for an independent examiner is “inappropriate ex parte communication.” He stated that “I will make my decisions on the matters referred to in the letter based only upon admissible evidence and the arguments of parties and interest presented in open court” and that the letter “will have no impact whatsoever on my decisions in this case which will only be based upon the facts and law presented by the parties.” The judge also ruled on January 11 that a list of creditors for FTX will remain sealed for at least another three months.