US trustee appeals NY Judge’s approval of Voyager deal with Binance.US

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed an appeal against the latest decision in the case for the selling of assets between Voyager Digital and Binance.US.

On March 8, the U.S. Trustee for Region 2 made the appeal to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against the approval of Voyager Digital’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan.

The chapter 11 plan was confirmed only a day prior, on March 7, by U.S. bankruptcy judge Michael Wiles. This plan would have allowed the former crypto brokerage company to go forward with selling billions of dollars in assets to Binance.US in an effort to regain liquidity to pay back customers. 

After Wiles told Bloomberg that he cannot put the case into an “indeterminate deep freeze while regulators figure out whether they believe there are problems with the transaction and plan.”

He also reportedly said that through the current plan,“Voyager’s customers would see an estimated 73% recovery.” Moreover, a poll that was released in a court filing on Feb. 28, revealed that 97% of Voyager customers themselves are in favor of the Binance.US deal. 

Related: US lawmakers argue SEC accounting policy places crypto customers at risk

Nonetheless, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been outspokenly against this deal. The financial regulator has said this asset restructuring plan and Binance.US’ acquisition could be in breach of securities law.

In a court filing from Feb. 24, the Texas State Securities Board and the Department of Banking also objected to the deal with Binance.US.

In the case that U.S. regulators successfully block this deal from going through, Voyager has the option to liquidate. The initial bankruptcy was filed on July 5, 2022, as the broker’s attempt to restructure and “return value” to more than 100,000 customers.