{"id":76404,"date":"2023-03-29T17:21:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T14:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=76404"},"modified":"2025-09-10T17:14:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T14:14:42","slug":"media-sam-bankman-fried-paid-lawyers-fees-from-a-gift-to-his-father-funded-by-ftx-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/media-sam-bankman-fried-paid-lawyers-fees-from-a-gift-to-his-father-funded-by-ftx-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"Media: Sam Bankman-Fried paid lawyers&#8217; fees from a &#8216;gift&#8217; to his father funded by FTX funds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former head<a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/how-the-collapse-of-ftx-and-alameda-research-will-affect-the-crypto-industry\"> now-bankrupt<\/a> of the FTX exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), directed funds from a gift he had given his father, drawn from money borrowed from the platform, to cover legal costs. Forbes reports, citing informed sources.<\/p>\n<p>The publication estimates that legal costs could run into the millions. His interests are represented by Mark Cohen and Christian Everdell of Cohen &#038; Gresser, as well as criminal-defense attorney David W. Mills.<\/p>\n<p>In 2021, SBF transferred $10 million to his father, Stanford law professor Joseph Bankman, using a loan facility tied to Alameda Research. The former CEO used the lifetime gift exemption of $11.7 million as of 2022.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>&#8220;Having received at least $10 million, SBF sent the funds to his father, using his lifetime exemption from estate and gift taxes \u2014 effectively a tax-free gift,&#8221;<\/em> \u2014 one of the sources said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Bankman-Fried was required to report this in his U.S. <span data-descr=\"Internal Revenue Service\" class=\"old_tooltip\">IRS<\/span> filing.<\/p>\n<p>Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried \u2014 SBF&#8217;s parents and a retired Stanford Law professor \u2014 received subpoenas from FTX&#8217;s lawyers. They demanded personal financial statements and records of any assets transferred to them by the companies or employees within the group of companies linked to his son.<\/p>\n<p>Forbes could not confirm how much Bankman-Fried spent on legal services.<\/p>\n<p>The publication noted that his parents used their own assets to support their son financially. They provided a large portion <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/court-grants-250m-bail-for-sam-bankman-fried\">the collateral of $250 million<\/a>, including their Palo Alto home valued at $1.8 million, as collateral.<\/p>\n<p>In January 2023 it emerged that U.S. federal prosecutors seized assets <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/u-s-prosecutors-seize-nearly-700-million-from-sam-bankman-fried\">worth $697 million<\/a> from Bankman-Fried.<\/p>\n<p>The sum consists largely of <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/u-s-authorities-seize-robinhood-shares-in-bankman-fried-case\">55.2 million Robinhood shares<\/a>, which are valued at about $485 million currently. The list also includes three Silvergate Bank accounts with more than $6 million in the name of the Bahamian subsidiary FTX Digital Markets. A further nearly $50 million were held at Moonstone Bank.<\/p>\n<p>After <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/bahamas-authorities-arrest-ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried\">the arrest in the Bahamas<\/a> and extradition to the United States, where SBF was released on bail of $250 million, he said he had less than $100,000 in his personal accounts.<\/p>\n<p>According to the March court presentation, FTX&#8217;s aggregate shortfall of assets to cover customer claims stood at <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/ftx-reports-1-6-billion-bitcoin-shortfall\">$8.7 billion<\/a>. The amount paid or loaned to the so-called Bankman-Fried inner circle amounted to <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/sam-bankman-fried-received-2-2-billion-from-ftx-and-alameda-research\">$3.2 billion<\/a>, including $<a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/sam-bankman-fried-received-2-2-billion-from-ftx-and-alameda-research\">2.2 billion<\/a> for him personally.<\/p>\n<p>In December 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice charged the former FTX chief with eight counts. In February 2023 prosecutors <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/sam-bankman-fried-charged-with-conspiracy-to-commit-bank-fraud\">increased the number of charges<\/a> against Bankman-Fried to 12, and in March <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/sam-bankman-fried-accused-of-bribing-a-chinese-official\">to 13<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/sam-bankman-fried-refuses-to-plead-guilty-trial-set-for-october\">has not pleaded guilty<\/a> to any of the charges. A trial was scheduled for October 2023.<\/p>\n<p>In March, Bankman-Fried<a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/sam-bankman-fried-seeks-to-have-ftx-cover-his-legal-bills\">demanded<\/a> that FTX pay his lawyers&#8217; fees from the company&#8217;s funds, funded by the gift to his father \u2014 see <a href=\"https:\/\/ru.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/%D0%A1%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%85%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5_%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8_%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2_%D0%B8_%D1%80%D1%83%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%B9#:~:text=%D0%A1%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%85%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5%20%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%20%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%20%D0%B8%D0%BD%20%D1%80%D1%83%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%B9%20(Directors%20%26%20Officers%20Liability%2C%20D%26O,%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B6%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%82%D1%83%20%D0%B8%D0%B7-%D0%B7%D0%B0%20%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8B%D1%85%20%D0%BE%D1%88%D0%B8%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%BA.%22\">\u0441\u0442\u0440\u0430\u0445\u043e\u0432\u043a\u0438 \u043e\u0442\u0432\u0435\u0442\u0441\u0442\u0432\u0435\u043d\u043d\u043e\u0441\u0442\u0438 \u0440\u0443\u043a\u043e\u0432\u043e\u0434\u0441\u0442\u0432\u0430<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>On March 28, the court <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/new-bail-terms-agreed-for-sam-bankman-fried\">approved<\/a> new terms for SBF&#8217;s bail.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, experts <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/ftx-lawyers-fees-total-nearly-20-million\">estimated the costs<\/a> for the company&#8217;s bankruptcy legal services at $20 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The former head{{AOPEN_1}} now-bankrupt{{ACLOSE_1}} of the FTX exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), directed funds from a gift to his father, drawn from money borrowed from the platform, to cover legal costs. Forbes reports, citing informed sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1162,1403],"class_list":["post-76404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-court-cases","tag-sam-bankman-fried"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"38","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76406,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76404\/revisions\/76406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}