FTX Founder SBF Could Forfeit Around $700M to U.S. Govt.

FTX’s disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) could forfeit as much as $700 million worth of assets to the United States government, according to new court documents filed on January 20.

The Jan. 20 court filing showed that crypto assets, alongside stocks and fiat deposits in banks could be subject to the foriture.

Per the court filings, SBF could be forfeiting over 55 million Robinhood shares which are worth about $525 million as of press time, and around $171 million in bank accounts tied to him. The seized assets in the banks include over $100 million in accounts at Silvergate Bank, $20.7 million at ED&F Man Capital Markets, and $50 million held at Moonstone Bank.

Additionally, the authorities also seized an undisclosed amount from accounts on Binance and Binance.US.

CFTC Commisioner Questions FTX VCs “Due Diligence”

In a separate development, a Commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Christy Goldsmith Romero questioned the due diligence measures employed by FTX’s institutional investors.

In a Jan. 21 Bloomberg interview, Romero questioned the due diligence of VCs that had writen off their investments in the bankrupt exchange. According to her, FTX CEO John Ray’s revelations about the exchange’s lack of records and internal financial controls poses “serious questions.”

She asked if there “was some conflicts that prevented them from really paying attention to the due diligence and the facts that they were uncovering.”

Since FTX filed for bankruptcy in November, at least three institutional investors like Ontario Teachers’, alongside Singapore-owned Temasek and investment firm Sequoia Capital have written off their investments in the firm. Each of these firms claimed they carried out robust due diligence on the bankrupt exchange.

FTX Token Rises

FTX’s native token FTT is one of the best performing digital assets in the last seven days. CoinMarketCap data shows that the token has risen by over 60% during this period.

FTT has risen by over 100% in 2023, with the asset crossing $2 after plunging to $0.82 on December 30. The embattled token has enjoyed renewed interest following Ray’s statement that the exchange could be restarted.

As of press time, FTT was down 1.93% to $2.28.