Key points to remember
- The DOJ seized more than 55 million shares of Robinhood and $20.7 million belonging to Emergent Fidelity Technologies.
- Although the holding company is not part of the FTX domain, the DOJ believes it was funded by Bankman-Fried with money embezzled from clients.
- Bankman-Fried had previously fought to keep the shares under his control to pay his legal fees.
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Despite Sam Bankman-Fried’s best efforts, the DOJ decided to seize the shares of Robinhood, the FTX prodigy purchased through Emergent Fidelity Technologies.
$490 million seized
Two months after the collapse of FTX, authorities are still busy seizing assets somehow related to the defunct crypto exchange.
According to a court filing dated January 6, the Department of Justice seized 55,273,469 shares of Robinhood owned by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried through a holding company, Emergent Fidelity Technologies. At the time of writing, the shares are worth over $469 million. The document says the DOJ seized an additional $20.7 million from Emergent Fidelity Technologies in an account at ED&F Man Capital Markets.
The DOJ said the assets were seized because they were purchased by Bankman-Fried with misappropriated funds. According to the filing, Bankman-Fried’s assets constitute property involved in money laundering and wire fraud.
Another court document deposit by FTX (under John Ray and the Liquidation Team) on Dec. 22 claims that Emergent Fidelity Technologies is a special purpose holding company that had no business other than holding these shares. The company would be 90% owned by Bankman-Fried.
Although the DOJ acknowledged that FTX’s debtor, BlockFi, had expressed an interest in being handed over the assets, it pointed out that Emergent Fidelity Technologies was not part of FTX’s estate and therefore was not yet involved in bankruptcy proceedings.
The $490 million seizure is another blow for Bankman-Fried, which had asked to retain control of Emergent Fidelity Technologies. He claimed he wanted to use Robinhood shares to pay his legal fees.
Bankman-Fried previously secured $250 million bail that required him to stay home with his parents at their home in Palo Alto.
Disclaimer: At the time of writing this article, the author of this article owned BTC, ETH, and several other crypto assets.
