Feds seized nearly $700 million from FTX founder Bankman-Fried

Jan 20 (Reuters) – Federal prosecutors seized nearly $700 million in assets from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in January, much of it in the form of Robinhood stock, according to a court filing on Friday.

Bankman-Fried, who was accused of stealing billions of dollars from FTX clients to pay debts incurred by his crypto-focused hedge fund, has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges. He is to be tried in October.

The Department of Justice disclosed the seizure of Robinhood shares earlier this month, but provided a more comprehensive list of assets seized on Friday, including cash held at various banks and assets deposited at crypto exchange Binance. .

Ownership of the seized Robinhood shares, valued at around $525 million, has been the subject of disputes between Bankman-Fried, FTX and bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi.

The most recent asset seizure reported by the DOJ took place on Thursday, when prosecutors seized $94.5 million in cash from a Silvergate Bank account that was associated with FTX Digital Markets, FTX’s subsidiary in the Bahamas. . The DOJ seized more than $7 million from other Silvergate accounts associated with Bankman-Fried and FTX.

The DOJ previously seized nearly $50 million from an FTX Digital Markets account at Moonstone Bank, a small Washington state bank.

The DOJ also said assets in three Binance accounts associated with Bankman-Fried were subject to criminal forfeiture, but did not provide an estimate of the value of those accounts.

Reporting by Dietrich Knauth; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Daniel Wallis

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