Feds have seized nearly $700M from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried

Federal authorities have seized almost $700 million from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, mostly from shares of Robinhood that he owned. 

A court filing from Friday shows that the federal government seized more than 55 million shares of Robinhood stock along with tens of millions of dollars from each of several bank accounts. 

Bankman-Fried was arrested last month in the Bahamas and extradited to the United States to face charges including wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit fraud as part of an alleged scheme to defraud investors. 

Prosecutors have alleged that Bankman-Fried used funds from investors for his own purposes to fund investments from his hedge fund, Alameda Research, buy real estate and to make political donations. 

He pleaded not guilty to all charges earlier this month. He has said he has not stolen any money, and FTX’s customers should be able to get their money back despite the cryptocurrency exchange’s bankruptcy declaration in November. 

Federal authorities have said Bankman-Fried used the money that investors intended to put into FTX to buy the Robinhood shares. 

The total value of the shares seized is more than $500 million. Five of the sums that officials seized were accounts held in the name of “FTX Digital Markets,” while three were for all money, assets and funds contained in three accounts for Binance, another cryptocurrency exchange.