In response to new courtroom filings, disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) might be topic to the forfeiture of roughly $700 million value of property if he had been to be discovered responsible of fraud.
In a courtroom doc filed on Jan 20, U.S. federal prosecutor Damian Williams outlined that the “authorities respectfully offers discover that the property topic to forfeiture” covers an extended record of property throughout fiat, shares and crypto.
The filings state that a lot of the property had been seized by the federal government between Jan.4 and Jan. 19, whereas it’s also trying to lay declare to “all monies and property” belonging to a few separate Binance accounts.
Wanting on the record of seized property, the most important allocations embody 55,273,469 Robinhood (HOOD) shares value roughly $525.5 million on the time of writing, $94.5 million held at Silvergate Financial institution, $49.9 million held at Farmington State Financial institution and $20.7 million at ED&F Man Capital Markets, Inc.
The federal government has submitted a forfeiture order on this occasion because it alleges that these property have been obtained unlawfully through using buyer deposits.
Whereas members of SBF’s inside circle akin to Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang have fessed up and cooperated with prosecutors over their roles in FTX’s collapse, the person himself has pleaded not responsible to all eight legal fees laid in opposition to him.
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FTX roped in African buyers with inflation hedge advertising
In different FTX-related information, a Jan. 18 report from the Wall Avenue Journal (WSJ) highlighted poorly aged advertising that the alternate launched in Africa not too lengthy earlier than it went bankrupt in November.
The marketing campaign in query touted USD-pegged stablecoins as safer investments than native currencies regarding inflation, whereas additionally selling the potential to earn 8% yearly through staking rewards packages.
Whereas these inflation sentiments might usually be true provided that African currencies such because the Nigerian naira and Ghanaian cedi have plummeted in opposition to the USD, any African FTX buyer persuaded by the advertising in fact went on misplaced funds when the agency went bankrupt.
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Former FTX schooling lead for Africa Pius Okedinachi instructed the WSJ that round that the alternate oversaw round $500 million value of month-to-month buying and selling quantity in Africa, with a lot of the quantity coming from Nigeria.
Notably, simply eight days earlier than FTX filed for chapter, SBF additionally promoted FTX’s companies to West Africa, asserting in a Nov. 3 tweet that the alternate had began accepting deposits in West African CFA francs.
