Following the collapse of FTX sister company Alameda Research, a multibillion-dollar trading platform headed by two millennial CEOs, and accusations of insider trading and a number of other potential criminal activities following its reliance on investment funds from FTX, Richard Levin, partner and chair of the FinTech and Regulation Practice at Nelson Mullins, told Forkast News that while one of Alameda CEOs had left the company prior to its implosion, they could still find themselves implicated in Alameda’s potentially yearslong bankruptcy.

“Any individual that leads an organization right before bankruptcy or several months before bankruptcy does not avoid potential responsibility in the eyes of the bankruptcy court or with respect to the civil and criminal prosecutions,” he said.

“Numerous parties will be named as defendants, and the prosecutors in the criminal cases may offer plea bargains or agreements with certain defendants in order to get cooperation and obtain evidence,” he said. “Depending on the number of violations and the dollar value of violations under the federal sentencing guidelines, you could be looking at potential criminal liability that could exceed 20 years of incarceration.”

Levin’s practice focuses on the representation of early stage and publicly traded companies in the FinTech space, including investment banks, broker-dealers, investment advisers, peer-to-peer lending platforms, digital currency trading platforms, alternative trading systems (ATSs), exchanges, and custodians.