BlocksInform
Joseph Bankman, the father of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, is said to have engaged a lawyer to prosecute the criminal case against his son.
In the words of a jan. 12 report from Reuters, Bankman retained Sean Hecker of New York-based law firm Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP. Bankman-fried's father reportedly counselled and helped his son on matters related to lobbying legislators in Washington, D.C. and could now cooperate with prosecutors behind the sbf case.
It is not clear at the time of publication if the banker has a criminal or civil responsibility linked to the collapse of ftx and what information, if any, that he could have made available to the authorities. On Jan. 3, Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to all criminal charges he’s facing related to allegations of fraud at FTX. Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang have already pleaded guilty to similar charges.
Together with his wife, Barbara Fried, Bankman helped secure his son’s bail in December with the equity in their house. Bankman-fried has been largely confined to the same palo alto property ever since, only permitted to leave under certain conditions, including attending court proceedings in New York. Bankman and Fried are faculty members of Stanford Law School.
Related: FTX former lead engineer in talks with federal prosecutors in Bankman-Fried case
heh whoops that was unintentional, good catch--think there shouldn't be a paying option anymore...
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) January 12, 2023
In a rare public statement since his arrest in the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried posted his version of events leading to FTX’s insolvency in a “pre-mortem overview” on Jan. 12. In large part, the former CEO denied the allegations against him by saying, "I did not steal money, and I certainly haven't hidden billions away" — instead of placing some of the fault on the crash of the crypto and binary CEO changpeng zhao market.
The criminal trial of Bankman-fried should start in October.
