FTX lawyers tried to take control away from Sam Bankman-Fried before bankruptcy

The saga of the collapse of what was the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, FTX continues, with reports now coming out about FTX's top lawyers trying to take control away from former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.

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Over the course of one week, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange collapsed in slow motion over a liquidity crunch closely tied to FTX's sister company Alameda Research. Now that the implosion has occurred, the fallout is being felt throughout the cryptocurrency industry, with companies such as BlockFi recently filing for bankruptcy as the FTX fallout severely impacted them. Additionally, more details about the events behind the scenes leading up to the implosion are coming out.

According to new reports, as FTX was in the midst of crumbling, top FTX lawyers reportedly attempted to take away control of the company from former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), who ignored messages from the lawyers that requested SBF prepare for bankruptcy and halt exchanges. Ryne Miller, a top FTX lawyer, wrote in an email to Mr. Bankman-Fried and other staff on November 10, "The exchanges must be halted immediately. The founding team is not currently in a cooperative posture."

• Read more: Cryptocurrency lender BlockFi to file for bankruptcy, new FTX contagion victim

The report from The New York Times claims that SBF ignored emails from FTX's lawyers for days while he was convinced that he could save the company from bankruptcy. Eventually, SBF folded and filed the company for bankruptcy on November 11 while simultaneously announcing his departure as CEO. Notably, in the days leading up to the announcement of bankruptcy, FTX lawyers were going to extremes to get into contact with SBF, even going as far as contacting the former CEO's father to see if he could get into contact with SBF.

The push to get a reply from SBF even happened in the early hours of November 11, with FTX lawyer Ryne Miller writing to the former CEO, "Please can you sign the document" at 2:29 a.m. That day SBF signed the documents and only a week later said he regretted filing for bankruptcy as he believed he was close to securing funding that would have saved the company.

In other cryptocurrency news, SBF has said that he's "deeply sorry" for the collapse of FTX. If you are interested in reading more about FTX, and its impact on the cryptocurrency industry, check out the below and above links.

• Read more: Sam Bankman-Fried says he's 'deeply sorry' for the collapse of FTX