Federal Prosecutors Seize Sam Bankman-Fried Assets Worth $700m, Including Silvergate Bank Accounts

Federal Prosecutors Seize Sam Bankman-Fried Assets Worth $700m, Including Silvergate Bank Accounts

Federal authorities confiscated assets worth approximately $700,000,000 belonging to Sam Bankman-Fried (disgraced founder of FTX), including three accounts at Silvergate Bank which held U.S. Dollars.

According to a Court filings starting FridayFederal prosecutors have taken $525 million worth Robinhood stock, $94.5million in cash from a Silvergate Bank account, over $7 million from other Silvergate accounts and nearly $50 million from a Moonstone Bank account. They also took assets in three Binance accounts.

The US Department of Justice announced the seizure of 56,000,000 shares of Robinhood earlier in the month. Sam Bankman-Fried owns the shares and Gary Wang, co-founder of FTX, has a holding company called Emergent Fidelity Technologies. The shares were bought with a loan from Alameda Research.

There have been four claims to the shares, resulting in disputes between several parties. BlockFi, a bankrupt crypto lender, is an FTX creditor. FTX’s new management is trying to recover funds for investors and customers on the bankrupt platform. The US government also wanted to retain control of the shares.

Sam Bankman-Fried also claimed the shares. SBF’s lawyers argued in a filing that the shares were owned by a holding which is not related to FTX. The lawyers also claimed that the disgraced crypto boss needed money to pay his legal expenses.

Silvergate Bank accounts containing $101.5 million were used to hold the assets. These accounts were opened in the name FTX Digital Markets (a Bahamian subsidiary). These assets were taken by the government “on or around” January 11, according to a crypto bank earlier this month.

Silvergate also revealed that it was subject to a bank ran following the collapse cryptocurrency exchange FTX. This forced Silvergate to sell assets at a substantial loss to pay $8.1 billion in customer withdrawals. The sale resulted in a $718m loss for the crypto bank.

The DOJ also seized almost $50 million from a FTX Digital Marketplaces account at Moonstone Bank. This digital bank has ties to FTX management. Yesterday, the bank declared that it was leaving the crypto space and would be refocusing its efforts on the “community banking” role due to recent industry developments.

The DOJ also seizes an undisclosed quantity of assets in two Binance.US accounts numbers.

SBF has been charged by the US with eight criminal offenses, including wire fraud and conspiracy to misuse customer funds. SBF has pleaded guilty to all charges.

By David Warsh

David Warsh is a leading expert in the field of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. With over a decade of experience in the industry, he has a deep understanding of the intricacies of digital currencies and the potential they hold for revolutionizing various industries.