Bankman-Fried faces a potential $700 million asset loss

Federal prosecutors in charge of the prosecution against the founder of FTX claim that Sam Bankman Fried’s assets which are worth approximately $700 million, may be forfeited if he is found guilty of fraud.

In a court filing on Friday, January 20th, 20233, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams named ten accounts that contained a mix of shares, cash, and cryptocurrency and were up for seizure.

A 55 million share holding by Bankman Fried in Robinhood Markets Inc. was included in the asset pool. These shares were worth $526 million as of Friday’s closing price. The shares were bought using a $456 million loan from Alameda Research, FTX’s sister trading firm, according to an earlier announcement by the Department of Justice.

Additional assets that are subject to forfeiture include more than $20 million held in an account under the name of Emergent Fidelity Technologies, the holding company used to buy the shares, more than $171 million in US dollars in accounts under the name FTX Digital Markets, and assets in three Binance accounts. The complaint claims that between January 4 and January 19, the authorities confiscated the cash-containing accounts.

He is charged with using funds from FTX customers to support trading at Alameda, pay for personal expenses, and purchase real estate. 

In response to an eight-count indictment that included charges of fraud and violation of campaign finance laws, Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty. The 30-year-old is out on bail after agreeing to a $250 million bond that put him under house arrest at his parent’s mansion in California. 

As part of the bankruptcy process, FTX’s new management, led by restructuring specialist John J. Ray III, was able to locate billions of dollars worth of assets connected to the crypto company.

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