Federal prosecutor Damian Williams said the government also wants to take control of three of SBF’s related Binance accounts. Most of SBF’s assets have already been seized.
According to new court documents, if Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the disgraced founder of FTX, is found guilty of fraud, he will lose about $700 million in assets.
In a court document filed on January 20, U.S. federal prosecutor Damian Williams said that the “government respectfully gives notice that the property subject to forfeiture” includes a long list of assets, including cash, stocks, and cryptocurrency.
The filings say that the government took most of the assets between January 4 and January 19. It also wants to claim “all monies and assets” from three Binance accounts.
When this article was written, 55,273,469 Robinhood (HOOD) shares were worth about $525.5 million on the list of seized assets. $94.5 million was held at Silvergate Bank, $49.9 million was held at Farmington State Bank, and $20.7 million was held at ED&F Man Capital Markets, Inc.
SBF Forfeiture order: Court Listener
The government believes the assets were fraudulently purchased through consumer money and wants them taken away.
SBF associates Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang acknowledged to their involvement in FTX’s collapse and cooperated with authorities. However, the man has pleaded not guilty to all eight criminal charges against him.
FTX Marketed Inflation Hedges To African Investors
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on January 18 that FTX’s Africa marketing was outdated before its November bankruptcy.
The campaign in question said that USD-pegged stablecoins were safer investments than local currencies because of inflation. It also noted that staking rewards programs could help people earn 8% yearly.
African currencies like the Nigerian naira and Ghanaian cedi have dropped in value against the U.S. dollar. So that these inflation fears may be generally valid. However, any African FTX customer who bought into the company’s marketing did lose money when the company went bankrupt.
Pius Okedinachi, former FTX education head for Africa, told the WSJ that the exchange controlled $500 million in African trade each month, mostly from Nigeria.
Notably, SBF promoted FTX’s services to West Africa eight days before FTX filed for bankruptcy. On November 3, SBF tweeted that the exchange had begun accepting deposits in West African CFA francs.
