A property linked to Sam Bankman-Fried’s political spending has been pulled from the market by the seller as a sign of “good faith” after it was linked to an FTX customer fund, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The townhouse – located a few blocks from the United States Capitol, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood – is owned by Guarding Against Pandemics, a non-profit organization founded by Gabriel Bankman-Fried, the brother of the former bankrupt CEO.
In a court filing from January, FTX’s new management stated that customer funds were misused to purchase the property for $3.3 million. The Guarding Against Pandemic pulled the listing after the media outlet contacted a real estate agent about the property.
A spokesperson for Guarding Against Pandemics told the WSJ that Gabriel is not part of the organization. Recently, FTX creditors requested subpoenas for documents from Bankman-Fried’s mother, Barbara Fried, and Gabriel, claiming they failed to respond to previous requests for information.
According to property records, the nonprofit is trying to sell at the same price in April 2022 to lobby Mitch Bainwol and his wife, Susan Bainwol.
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The three-story building is 4,100 square feet, has four bedrooms, and is reportedly used as the organization’s offices, with workstations set up in various rooms. Several open houses were held by the real estate company responsible for the listing, but no purchase offers were received.
FTX’s donations to political parties and candidates are being investigated by US prosecutors. Bankman-Fried was the second largest “CEO contributor” to Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, donating $5.2 million. Days before the midterm elections in November 2022, he acknowledged being an “important donor” to both sides of the political spectrum in Washington.
The exchange’s new management team has been working to identify funds to repay creditors since filing for bankruptcy on November 11. According to FTX lawyer Andy Dietderich, the exchange has “returned $5 billion in cash and liquid cryptocurrencies” in January.
Clawback provisions could force businesses and investors to return billions of dollars paid in the months before the collapse of crypto exchanges, Cointelegraph has reported.