FTX has sued Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, the parents of Sam Bankman-Fried, claiming they enriched themselves by siphoning off millions of dollars in “fraudulently transferred and misappropriated funds” from the cryptocurrency exchange their son founded.
In a court filing earlier this week, the FTX debtors said Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, both of whom are tenured professors at Stanford Law School, used their influence to funnel money from the business to themselves and their pet charitable causes.
Bankman, a tax lawyer, also lavished gifts upon his friends and family using FTX funds, they alleged, including, flights and tickets to the Formula One Grand Prix in France.
Fried used her influence to obtain millions of dollars in donations from Bankman-Fried and an associate for Mind the Gap, a Super Pac she co-founded to help Democrats win office in the 2020 US election cycle. She further pressured “certain FTX Insiders to unlawfully avoid (if not violate) federal campaign finance law”, the debtors allege.