The US Department of Justice has seized over 55.2 million Robinhood shares from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried as the legal battle around the collapse of the notorious crypto exchange continues.
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In addition to $456 million worth of shares, DOJ also confiscated over $20.7 million from an account at ED&F Man Capital Markets Inc, saying that the seized assets "are not property of the bankruptcy estate."
Bankman-Fried's lawyers have been trying to stop US regulators from freezing the assets, claiming that their client needs "some of these funds to pay for his criminal defense." They also pointed out that the withholding of costs necessary to an adequate criminal defense "can constitute irreparable harm."
- Bankman-Fried bought a slightly over 7.4% of Robinhood's shares through Emergent Fidelity Technologies for $648 million.
- FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US in early November after it had faced a liquidity crisis. The Bahamas-based trading platform allegedly owes nearly $3.1 billion to top 50 creditors.
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