Bankman-Fried assets of almost $700 million may be forfeited in FTX scam
Sam Bankman-Fried’s assets valued at almost $700 million will be subject to forfeiture if he’s found guilty of fraud, according to federal prosecutors leading the case against the FTX founder.
In a court filing Friday, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, outlined 10 accounts, with a mix of shares, cash and cryptocurrency subject to forfeiture.
The asset pool included about 55 million shares Bankman-Fried held in Robinhood Markets Inc. At Friday’s closing price those shares were valued at $526 million. The Department of Justice previously announced it had seized the shares, which were purchased with a $456 million loan from Alameda Research, FTX’s sister trading house.
The property subject to forfeiture also includes more than $20 million held in an account in the name of Emergent Fidelity Technologies, the holding company used to purchase the shares, more than $171 million in US currency in accounts under the name FTX Digital Markets and assets in three Binance accounts. The accounts containing cash were seized by the government between Jan. 4 and Jan. 19, according to the filing.
Prosecutors use forfeiture orders as a way to claw back assets defendants obtained with ill-gotten gains. In Bernie Madoff’s case, a judge ordered the late Ponzi schemer to forfeit more than $170 billion and his wife, $80 million. Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the dark web bazaar Silk Road, was ordered to hand over about $28 million worth of Bitcoin as part of a 2014 forfeiture order.
Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to an eight-count indictment, including fraud and campaign finance law violations. He is accused of using FTX customer funds to prop up trading at Alameda, pay for personal expenses and real
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