According to officials charged with liquidating the firm, the founders of the cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) are nowhere to be found. On Friday a court document was filed which questioned Zhu and Davies’ whereabouts while its liquidators say they have not received “any meaningful cooperation” from the two.
Earlier this month, the Singapore-based hedge fund 3AC filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy to provide security to foreign companies’ assets from creditors in the US. Many publishing houses quickly reported the bankruptcy filing and it was soon revealed that the fund had also failed to repay $270 million to a crypto exchange. A court in the British Virgin Islands asked Teneo, a business management company to oversee 3AC’s liquidation.
In a Zoom call, people from a Singapore-based legal agency represented the two founders— which is odd and has raised several eyebrows. Two senior directors at Teneo— Russell Crumpler and Christopher Farmer were also on that call. Christopher alleges that he tried locating Zhu and Davies at the 3AC headquarters in Singapore. He claimed that he could only find a locked door and unopened emails. The court filing says that Zhu may be trying to sell his $35 million mansion in Singapore.
“Their video was turned off and they were on mute at all times with neither of them speaking despite questions being posed to them directly.”
As per Reuters, an emergency hearing has been scheduled by the court on Tuesday, July 12th.
The sudden disappearance of Davies and Zhu isn’t unusual in the world of crypto. Investors have struggled to sue firms in the game like Binance and Celsius (though they are facing legal troubles, investors who lost money are still stuck with their losses and cannot find a way to get their money back). Companies like Binance have halted trading while Bitcoin plunged in value.
A lot of damage to the crypto market has been caused by the collapse of major direct and indirect cryptocurrency firms like Celsius and 3AC. Experts have opined that the real damage is that it harms investor confidence and the market-wide effect will reflect in the medium-term.