Last week, it was brought to light that SBF borrowed $546 million from Alameda to pocket shares of Robinhood [HOOD]. After the development, the U.S. Department of Justice did not wait too long to seize SBF’s $575 million in HOOD shares. Now, according to reports, SBF has filed a court action with the intention of fending his HOOD stake.
In the court filing, SBF sought protection from FTX debtors to retain control of his $450 million shares in Robinhood. Further revealing the reason behind the same, the filing read,
“It is improper for the FTX Debtors to ask the Court to simply assume that everything Mr. Bankman-Fried ever touched is presumptively fraudulent. Mr. Bankman-Fried requires some of these funds to pay for his criminal defense.”
SBF argues that the borrowed money was documented as a loan
The 56 million shares were the focus of a protracted legal dispute that also involves the crypto lender BlockFi and the DOJ. They are theoretically controlled by Bankman-Fried and co-founder Gary Wang through a holding firm named Emergent Fidelity Technologies.
In his filing, Bankman-Fried refuted and stated he and Wang had lawfully acquired the shares using funds borrowed from FTX’s trading arm, Alameda Research. He even suggested that the loan had been verified. Additionally, BlockFi, opposed the move to assume control of the shares. Last year, FTX tried to rescue the firm before it declared bankruptcy.
Furthermore, the DOJ seized these funds in light of the ongoing investigation against SBF. Therefore, the chances of its recovery were limited.