In keeping with new court docket filings, disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) will likely be topic to the forfeiture of roughly $700 million price of belongings if he had been to be discovered responsible of fraud.
In a court docket 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 a protracted checklist of belongings throughout fiat, shares and crypto.
The filings state that a lot of the belongings had been seized by the government between Jan.4 and Jan. 19, whereas additionally it is trying to lay declare to “all monies and belongings” belonging to 3 separate Binance accounts.
Wanting on the checklist of seized belongings, the largest allocations embrace 55,273,469 Robinhood (HOOD) shares price 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 belongings have been obtained unlawfully through using buyer deposits.
Whereas members of SBF’s inside circle similar 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 guilty to all eight felony prices 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 trade 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 could typically 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 informed the WSJ that round that the trade oversaw round $500 million price 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, saying in a Nov. 3 tweet that the trade had began accepting deposits in West African CFA francs.
