Former FTX executive chairman Sam Bankman-Fried (C) arrives to enter a plea before US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in federal court in Manhattan, New York, January 3, 2023.
Ed Jones AFP Getty Images
Federal prosecutors seized nearly $700 million in cash and assets linked to Sam Bankman-Fried, mainly in the form of Robinhood shares owned by the FTX founder, the court revealed on Friday.
John Ray, who replaced Bankman-Fried as CEO to lead the restructuring of FTX, is trying to save the funds lost by the crypto company’s depositors when the company went bankrupt in November. Bankman-Fried was arrested on criminal fraud charges in December and was released on $250 million bail pending trial.
Robinhood’s 55 million-plus shares are at the heart of a contentious multi-party battle between Caribbean litigants, representatives of bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi, Bankman-Fried himself, and bankruptcy chief FTX.
Federal prosecutors allege that Robinhood stock was purchased using stolen customer funds. In May, Bankman-Fried said it had bought a 7.6% stake in Robinhood and said “we think it’s an interesting investment.” The stock closed at $9.52, the value of the stock recovered at over $526 million.
Bankman-Fried has denied misappropriating customer assets.
Three of the seized accounts were held on Silvergate The bank, under the name FTX Digital Markets, holds more than $6 million. The assets, held in the name of a Bahamian subsidiary, were considered by the government “on or about” January 11. Silvergate recently announced that customer deposits fell by nearly 70% in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Almost $50 million was held at Moonstone Bank, a US financial institution linked to FTX’s management, according to court filings.
Federal prosecutors did not disclose the value of funds or assets in one Binance account and two Binance.US account numbers. The three Binance accounts were the only assets seized that had no value attached to them.
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