FTX’s new CEO John Ray III told members of Congress that Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents received payments from the now-insolvent crypto exchange.
According to a Sunday report from Sky News Australia, lawmakers and FTX liquidators are now turning their attention to Bankman-Fried’s parents after finding that they were “heavily involved” in FTX’s operations.
In recent testimony before the U.S. Congress, Ray said he was investigating both Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, former professors at Stanford Law School.
Bankman, father of FTX-founder Bankman-Fried, had given the firm legal advice, according to Ray. While Ray could not confirm if he had been given employee status at FTX, he alluded to the fact that Bankman-Fried’s family members had “certainly received payments.”
Joseph Bankman has canceled the classes he was scheduled to teach this year, a report from The San Francisco Standard disclosed earlier this month. Bankman said he plans to spend nearly all of his resources on his son’s defense and has withdrawn his financial support from non-profit organizations funded by the FTX Foundation.
Meanwhile, FTX founder Bankman-Fried will no longer be contesting extradition to the U.S., as per a Reuters report on Saturday. The former FTX CEO is currently in custody at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services’ Fox Hill prison. After agreeing to be extradited to U.S. soil, Bankman-Fried would likely be held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn before he appears in a U.S. court to face the charges against him.
The Department of Justice has charged Bankman-Fried with eight counts of fraud, including wire fraud and money laundering. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged Bankman-Fried, Alameda and FTX with two counts of violating anti-fraud provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act, one of which includes fraudulent misstatements made to customers. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have charged the former FTX CEO with two counts of civil securities fraud.
