SBF Prosecutors Are Stopping At Nothing To Recover Funds

Updated: 27 January 2023

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The bankruptcy lawyers pursuing FTX’s legal case against Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) have sought permission from Judge John Dorsey to subpoena his family members. They want them to testify under oath concerning any financial benefits they received from businesses around the crypto exchange FTX.

https://t.co/Dqc489FsKD

— ErmoFi (@ErmofiNews) January 27, 2023

The lawyers also want to question a few of the previous executives at FTX with hopes of identifying any assets that can be used to repay bereft creditors of the now bankrupt exchange.

FTX Prosecutors Stopping At Nothing

A Bloomberg report revealed that SBF’s father, Joseph Bankman, a law professor, offered tax advice to FTX employees. The report also highlights that SBF’s brother, Gabriel, was involved in political lobbying from a lavish property in Washington, D.C. Safe to say, the legal prosecutors are stopping at nothing.

In the same way, the report alleges that SBF’s mother, Barbara Fried, received funds from FTX for a Mind the Gap political action committee. Fried also spent a colossal amount of money to support mostly democratic candidates across 2022.

In their aggressive pursuit, the lawyers go after FTX assets, despite a recent discovery of about $5 billion to settle users. Moreover, the new CEO of the bankrupt exchange John Ray III disclosed that a new task force had been commissioned to investigate whether it was feasible to reopen the exchange’s operations with the hope of obtaining the necessary liquidity for reimbursing customers.

SBF and His Brother Lobbied Heavily For Pandemic Prevention

Noteworthy, SBF’s younger sibling, Gabriel, is the former director of a non-profit and political action committee dedicated to preventing the Covid-19 pandemic.

From the report, the brothers’ involvement in the project was a testament to their commitment to a philosophy christened, ‘Effective Altruism.’ Based on the report, they used cash from FTX to make wide-ranging investments, such as a $12 million donation to a California ballot project focused on identifying emerging viruses and funding the political campaign of an Oregon-based bio-security expert.

A summary of the conclusive report shows that the political action committee, Protect Our Future, spent up to $28 million on Democrats in 2022. In the same way, the non-profit Guarding Against pandemics spent $1 million to support persuasion efforts for a new pandemic plan on Capitol Hill.

1)Since it’s been getting more attention recently… What are my views on politics and policy?

— SBF (@SBF_FTX) May 25, 2022

Following the collapse of FTX in November 2022, SBF’s younger sibling resigned from his position at the Guarding Against Pandemics, with one of his advisers saying he was convinced that Gabriel had a genuine interest in preventing the pandemic, unlike SBF, who never made it clear. In his words in the Washington Post:

I’m 100 percent sure Gabe cared about pandemics … I don’t know what to think about [Sam].

More Around Crypto Assets Than Biological Relations

The application to subpoena Sam Bankman-Fried’s family is more about the use of assets acquired through the alleged defrauding of FTX customers than it is about their biological relationships with the accused (SBF).

The legal representatives going against SBF claim that his parents lived in a $16.4 million Bahamian mansion, despite knowing that crypto exchange FTX owned the property. They also claim that Gabriel used fraudulent funds to purchase a luxury property in Washington, D.C.

In a December 2022 statement in the New York Post, an individual speaking for SBF’s parents said that Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried were in the process of returning the title deeds for the property. SBF’s father has since hired a lawyer for the separate criminal case against his elder son Sam Bankman-Fried as opposed to the FTX bankruptcy case. Reportedly, the lawyer is holding ongoing negotiations with FTX lawyers.

As we wait for a voluntary resolution, Judge Dorsey is expected to approve any request by FTX lawyers to subpoena Sam Bankman-Fried’s family.