Silvergate Bank and its CEO Alan Lane have been accused of “aiding and abetting” a “multi-billion dollar fraud scheme orchestrated by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)” and two entities, FTX and Alameda Research, in a newly proposed class action. lawsuit.
A proposed class-action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on February 14 by lawyers representing San Francisco-based FTX users who – like all other FTX customers – are frozen in around $20,000. crypto when the exchange collapsed last year.
Plaintiff Soham Bhatia said Silvergate Bank, parent company Silvergate Capital Corporation and CEO Alan Lane knew about the use of FTX customer funds by Alameda Research and accused them of hiding the “true nature of FTX” from customers.
“At all relevant times, Silvergate, Bankman-Fried and Lane were co-conspirators,” according to the lawsuit, adding:
Silvergate $SI currently the most shorted stock (73% of float)
Yes, the bank that according to the class-action lawsuit directly “aided and abetted the FTX fraud” pic.twitter.com/k2zSb41pgD
– Yoda Research (@YodaResearch) February 14, 2023
Silvergate and Lane aided and abetted, encouraged and must have aided Bankman-Fried in jointly perpetrating the fraudulent scheme against the Plaintiff and the class.
“By aiding, abetting, abetting, and abetting the wrongdoing, omission and other wrongdoing charged above, the Defendants acted knowingly wrongdoing and knowing that their actions would help complete the illegal design.”
The lawsuit seeks a combination of damages, compensation and disgorgement of profits in an amount to be determined at trial.
However, the lawsuit has not been certified by the district court, which is a necessary step before it can be filed as a class action.
related: Crypto Bank Silvergate ranks as the second most shorted stock on Wall Street
The latest proposed lawsuit is just another class action complaint filed against Silvergate in the past two months.
On December 14, plaintiff Joewy Gonzalez filed a similar class-action lawsuit in the Southern District Court of California – accusing Silvergate of its alleged role in “continuing the FTX investment fraud” by aiding and abetting the crypto exchange when placing FTX users’ deposits into their bank accounts. Alameda.
On January 10, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Silvergate Capital Corporation in the United States District Court in Southern California, alleging that Silvergate’s platform failed to detect money laundering incidents “in excess of $425 million” involving South American money laundering.
On February 6, algorithmic trading firm Statistica Capital filed a class-action lawsuit against Signature Bank alleging that it had “actual knowledge and substantially facilitated the now notorious FTX fraud.”
We have to read a little, but this is a clear picture of the role of Signature Bank, FTX-Alameda intertwining funds and others.
It takes an industry insider to reveal the internal dynamics and that is what happened here. https://t.co/0DCcYPUDlT
— Simon Lelieveldt – finhstamsterdam@m.st…n.social (@finhstamsterdam) February 13, 2023
“Specifically, Signature understands and allows the commingling of FTX customer funds in the blockchain-based payment network, Signet,” it wrote.
Cointelegraph has reached out to Silvergate for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.