According to new court filings, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) will face a forfeiture of assets worth approximately $700 million if he is found guilty of fraud.
In a court filing filed Jan. 20, U.S. Attorney General Damian Williams asserted that “government notices to respect property subject to forfeiture” include a long list of assets in fiat currency, stocks, and cryptocurrencies.
Records indicate that the government seized most of the assets between January 4 and 19, while also attempting to claim “all cash and assets” belonging to three separate Binance accounts.
Looking at the list of forfeited assets, the largest allotments include 55,273,469 shares of Robinhood (HOOD) worth approximately $525.5 million at the time of writing, $94.5 million in Silvergate Bank, $49.9 million in Farmington State Bank and $20.7 Million in ED&F Man Capital Markets, Inc.
The government filed a forfeiture order in this case, alleging that these assets were illegally obtained through the use of customer deposits.
While members of the SBF inner circle such as Carolyn Ellison and Gary Wang have admitted and cooperated with prosecutors over their roles in the FTX collapse, the man has pleaded not guilty to all eight criminal charges against him.
FTX attracted African investors with its inflation prudential marketing
In other FTX-related news, a report published Jan. 18 by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) highlighted the poor marketing the exchange launched in Africa shortly before its bankruptcy in November.
The campaign in question touted dollar-pegged stablecoins as safer investments than local currencies against inflation, while touting the potential to earn 8% per annum through wagering bonus programs.
While these inflationary sentiments may be valid, given that African currencies such as the Nigerian naira and Ghanaian cedi have depreciated against the dollar, any African FTX client convinced by marketing would, of course, lose money when the company went bankrupt.
Pius Okedinashi, FTX’s former education leader in Africa, told the WSJ that the exchange oversees about $500 million in monthly trading volume in Africa, with most of the volume coming from Nigeria.
Notably, just eight days before FTX filed for bankruptcy, the SBF also promoted FTX’s services to West Africa, announcing in a November 3 tweet that the exchange had begun accepting deposits in West African francs.