The parents in the middle of FTX’s collapse
moneycontrol.comAt the height of its corporate power, cryptocurrency exchange FTX convened a group of athletes and celebrities for a charity event in March at the Miami Heat’s NBA arena. Local high school students competed for more than $1 million in prizes, pitching “Shark Tank”-style business ideas to a panel of judges that included David Ortiz, a former Boston Red Sox slugger, and Kevin O’Leary, an actual “Shark Tank” host.
But the event’s organizer was a figure better known in academic circles — Joseph Bankman, a longtime tax professor at Stanford Law School and father of Sam Bankman-Fried, the now-disgraced founder of FTX.
Wearing a baseball cap with FTX’s logo, Bankman walked onstage to help announce the winners of two $500,000 checks. Behind the scenes, he played the role of FTX diplomat, introducing his son to the head of a Florida nonprofit organization that was helping adults in the area set up bank accounts linked to the crypto exchange’s platform. Two months later, Bankman-Fried promoted the partnership in testimony to Congress, where he was pushing crypto-friendly legislation.
In the months before FTX filed for bankruptcy, on Nov. 11, Bankman was a prominent cheerleader for the company, helping to shape the narrative that his son was using crypto to save the world by donating to charity and giving low-income people access to the financial system.
Bankman and his wife, Stanford Law professor Barbara Fried, were more than just supportive parents backing their child’s business. Bankman was a paid FTX employee who traveled frequently to the Bahamas, where the exchange was based. Fried did not work for the company, but her son was among the donors in a political advocacy network that she orchestrated.
Now Bankman and Fried are under
Read more on moneycontrol.com
