Sam Bankman-Fried's assets under attack after conviction

A New York court has just ordered the permanent confiscation of assets owned by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the former CEO of FTX, with a total value approaching one billion dollars. This historic decision comes as the crypto exchange begins to repay its first creditors.

Justice strikes hard and strips Sam Bankman

On February 18, 2025, the Southern District Court of New York issued a final order detailing the impressive list of confiscated assets from Sam Bankman-Fried. At the heart of these assets is a block of 55.2 million Robinhood shares, valued at $605.7 million following their buyback by the company last September. These shares were initially seized by the U.S. Department of Justice in January 2023.

The former crypto mogul’s personal fortune also included two luxurious jets: a Bombardier Global 5000 and an Embraer Legacy. Additionally, there are numerous assets owned by Alameda Research, the trading company he co-founded that is at the center of the FTX scandal.

The authorities also seized a particularly diversified crypto wallet, containing significant amounts of Bitcoin, Ether, Cardano, Dogecoin, and millions of dollars in Tether stablecoins. These cryptocurrencies were primarily held on the Binance.US platform.

A vast network of political donations revealed

The confiscation order sheds light on a complex network of political contributions orchestrated by Bankman-Fried. These donations, made directly or through other FTX executives like Ryan Salame and Nishad Singh, covered the entire American political spectrum. The beneficiaries included both candidates for Congress and local political organizations.

This revelation comes as FTX began its first phase of repayment to creditors on February 18, 2025. Of the $1.2 billion earmarked for this initial step, the company has already distributed $800 million to over 162,000 accounts via the Kraken and BitGo platforms. This first wave concerns the “Convenience Class,” grouping debts of less than $50,000.

It is worth noting that the value of the confiscated assets far exceeds the initial estimates from January 2023, which predicted a seizure of $700 million. Investigators discovered additional assets belonging to SBF, bringing the total amount to nearly one billion dollars. This confiscation represents a major breakthrough for the victims of FTX, who collectively lost nearly $9 billion.

Meanwhile, Sam Bankman-Fried, sentenced to 25 years in prison, continues his legal battle on appeal. He contests the jury’s decision, claiming that prosecutors presented a skewed version of events regarding the management of FTX user funds.