Let’s begin with this:
Prager Metis is an organization I had never heard of, although in fairness, I don’t exactly hang out in the world of financial auditing firms. They claim to be over a century old and “fastest growing accounting & advisory firm” (faster than whom, they don’t say), but I’m a little puzzled they have a mere 597 followers on their Twitter feed.
In any case, this heretofore relatively anonymous firm has been thrust in the spotlight since they were, evidently, the auditors over FTX increasingly-questionable financials.
What’s interesting is that the first-day affidavit has landed into the public’s lap, showing what an actual experienced and mature adult has to say, now that he’s been deployed to examine the state of affairs at FTX. In his very lengthy document, he has this to say about the aforementioned organization (and keep in mind, this man is one of the most esteemed financial disaster specialists on the planet, with four decades of experience):
The audit firm for the Dotcom Silo was Prager Metis, a firm with which I am not familiar and whose website indicates that they are the “first-ever CPA firm to officially open its Metaverse headquarters in the metaverse platform Decentraland. I have substantial concerns as to the information presented in these audited financial statements, especially with respect to the Dotcom Silo. As a practical matter, I do not believe it appropriate for stakeholders or the Court to rely on the audited financial statements as a reliable indication of the financial circumstances of these Silos.
Which all makes plenty of sense considering the jaw-dropping collapse of everything within a 500 mile radius of Samuel Bankman-Fried (not pictured below, but might as well get my dig in at James while we’re in crypto-land):
As for the firm’s presence in the Metaverse, yep, there it is. You know it’s the Metaverse because there’s not a single human visitor visible.
There are humans within the real Prager Metis, however, as illustrated by this rather puzzling choice of photo from their own home page.
All I can say is that it’s rather fitting that John Ray III, who presided over the Enron wind-down, is in charge of FTX now, because contemporaneous with that was the destruction of Arthur Anderson, a gargantuan, worldwide auditing firm, based on their dishonesty with respect to Enron. I’m not suggesting Prager Metis has done anything wrong, but if they have, you can probably kiss them, and their Metaverse presence, good-bye.
As for our own legal system, it’s said that none other than Maxine Waters is going to be in charge of grilling SBF, and my goodness, I’m sure she’ll be merciless.
