Sam Bankman-Fried is battling to keep a $450 million stake in retail stock Robinhood that FTX’s new boss is trying to claw back from the indicted crypto huckster, according to court records.
The ousted FTX founder claims he is entitled to the assets listed under Emergent Fidelity Technologies, a holding company Bankman-Fried registered in Antigua.
The filings released Thursday in a Delaware bankruptcy court show Bankman-Fried is the sole director and majority stakeholder of Emergent.
However, new FTX CEO John J. Ray III — who is seeking to regain billions in investor funds that Bankman-Fried allegedly swindled from them to prop up his hedge fund Alameda Research — argued the stake in Robinhood belongs to FTX, according to the legal filing.
The matter is complicated further by the fact that two other creditors — the crypto lending firm BlockFi and FTX creditor Yonatan Ben Shimon — are also claiming ownership of the Robinhood stake.
In May, Emergent and Bankman-Fried revealed that it owned a 7.6% stake in Robinhood. According to SEC filings, Bankman-Fried paid $648 million for more than 56.3 million shares in the app.
On Friday, shares of Robinhood were trading at $8, putting the stake’s worth at $447 million — a $200 million loss.
FTX, which has been placed under the stewardship of Ray while being administered under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, seeks to freeze any activity in the shares while the legal battle plays out.
“The debtors are conducting an investigation into the business affairs of the FTX group,” FTX said in the filing.
“This investigation to date indicates that the Robinhood shares are property of the debtors’ estates, held only nominally by Emergent.”
Last month, BlockFi filed suit against Bankman-Fried, claiming that Alameda Research promised to secure $1 billion in loans that included the Robinhood stake.
BlockFi alleged that Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s on-again, off-again girlfriend who ran Alameda Research, made the pledge.
But FTX, which is contesting BlockFi’s claim, said Ellison had no standing to make such a promise.
“The Robinhood Shares were included in these pledged assets by Alameda’s then-CEO, despite the fact that the Robinhood Shares were nominally held by Emergent, because Alameda had then, and continues to have, a property interest in the Robinhood Shares,” FTX said in its court filing.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev told CNBC earlier this month that he expects the stake in his company to be tied up in bankruptcy proceedings for the foreseeable future.
“I’m not surprised that it’s one of the more valuable assets they have on their balance sheet, because it is public company’s stock,” Tenev told CNBC.
“We’re just watching this unfold. And it’s going to be locked up in bankruptcy proceedings — most likely for some time — and so we’re just kind of seeing how that plays out.”
Bankman-Fried was freed on $250 million bond on Thursday. He awaits trial on federal charges including wire fraud and securities fraud.
Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang have pledged guilty to federal charges of fraud. They have indicated they will cooperate with investigators. The have both been released on $250,000 bail.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
