Last updated on February 20th, 2025 at 09:59 pm
A U.S. federal court has finalized the forfeiture of $1 billion in assets from Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced co-founder of FTX, marking a major step in efforts to compensate victims of the exchange’s collapse.
The ruling, issued on February 19, 2025, by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, officially severed Bankman-Fried’s ownership of dozens of assets. According to U.S. Department of Justice records, these include $606 million from Robinhood stock sales, two private jets, and over 250 political donations.
The seized assets also included cryptocurrencies from Alameda Research’s Binance accounts ($56 million in XRP, $3.6 million in TRX, $3.4 million in ADA, $2.3 million in BTC) and dozens of other holdings. The forfeited private jets include a 2009 Bombardier Global 5000 and a 2006 Embraer Legacy.
U.S. authorities began seizing these assets in December 2022, shortly after FTX’s bankruptcy. Investigators traced billions in customer funds diverted to Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, as well as personal luxury purchases and political contributions.
The forfeiture aims to recover funds for creditors and customers who lost savings when FTX imploded in November 2022, wiping out $8 billion in user deposits.
Court filings detail a complex web of financial mismanagement, with forensic accountants uncovering hidden assets through civil and criminal proceedings. The DOJ expects further asset recoveries, with ongoing efforts to trace hidden funds.
Notably, the ruling comes nearly two years after Bankman-Fried’s conviction for fraud and money laundering in 2023. He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2024 and was found guilty of using FTX customer funds for high-risk trades, personal enrichment, and political influence. Prosecutors argued the scale of his fraud exposed major regulatory gaps in crypto markets.
Meanwhile, FTX’s bankruptcy estate began its first payouts on February 19 and has reportedly distributed over $1.2 billion to creditors with smaller claims. Some recipients claim they receivned their funds on accounts at crypto exchange Kraken with the added interest on top.
These creditors recovered about 119% of their original balances, though they missed out on crypto’s massive rebound since the 2022 collapse.
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