Robinhood pays $605M to buy Sam Bankman-Fried’s stake

Crypto trading firm Robinhood has been able to repurchase Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang’s stakes from the United States Marshal Service. 

FTX founders Bankman-Fried and Wang owned 55 million shares in Robinhood through Emergent Fidelity Technologies; these shares were seized as part of the criminal case against Bankman-Fried. A warrant for seizure of these shares was issued on December 30, 2022. On January 4, they were transferred to the US which filed to sell these on August 13.

Robinhood paid $605 million to repurchase these shares in an agreement with the US Marshal Service. 

Bankman-Fried and his lawyers have previously opposed the FTX bankruptcy estate’s claim on these shares and specifically argued that clients of FTX only risked “economic loss,” whereas Bankman-Fried faced the “irreparable” harm of potentially not being able to use these funds to support his criminal defense. 

Read more: New evidence reveals Caroline Ellison blamed SBF for FTX demise

Wang has already pleaded guilty to wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. 

Bankman-Fried faces many similar charges and more, but has continued to plead not guilty so far. 

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