The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked victims of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)’s fraud to come forward. The former FTX executive has been charged with “defrauding customers of FTX.com, investors in FTX.com, and lenders to Alameda Research,” the Justice Department noted.
DOJ Urges Victims of SBF Fraud to Come Forward
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reached out to victims of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)’s fraud via its website Friday, explaining their rights and asking them to come forward. Bankman-Fried co-founded FTX and served as its CEO when the crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy in November last year.
The DOJ wrote:
If you believe that you may have been a victim of fraud by Samuel Bankman-Fried, a/k/a ‘SBF,’ please contact the victim/witness coordinator at the United States Attorney’s Office … for assistance in verifying whether you are a victim in this case.
The Justice Department explained that on Dec. 13, 2022, “an eight-count indictment was unsealed charging Samuel Bankman-Fried with defrauding customers of FTX.com, investors in FTX.com, and lenders to Alameda Research.”
The DOJ detailed: “Bankman-Fried is charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to defraud the United States and violate the campaign finance laws.”
Prosecutors are required by federal law to contact possible crime victims to inform them of their rights.
However, in court papers filed on Friday, federal prosecutors in Manhattan asked U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who has been assigned to the SBF case, for permission to use a website to notify victims, rather than contacting each individually. They claimed that the collapsed crypto exchange FTX could owe money to more than one million people, making it “impracticable” to contact each person.
Bankman-Fried, who is currently at his parents’ house on a $250 billion bond, has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges. Meanwhile, the DOJ has moved to seize shares of Robinhood Markets (Nasdaq: HOOD), worth about $460 million, linked to the former FTX boss.
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