Legal representatives of SBF's parents say FTX's claims are 'completely false'

Quick Take

  • The legal representatives of Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried have responded to FTX’s lawsuit against them.

The legal representatives to Sam Bankman-Fried's parents are fighting back against claims made by crypto exchange FTX, which is suing them. 

“This is a dangerous attempt to intimidate Joe and Barbara and undermine the jury process just days before their child’s trial begins. These claims are completely false," Sean Hecker, counsel to Joe Bankman, and Michael Tremonte, counsel for Barbara Fried, told The Block. 

"Mr. Ray and his massive team of lawyers, who are collectively running up countless millions of dollars in fees while returning relatively little to FTX clients, know better," they added.

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FTX, a bankrupt crypto exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, is suing his parents in an attempt to recover millions of dollars. FTX claims that Bankman and Fried "exploited their access and influence within the FTX enterprise to enrich themselves, directly and indirectly, by millions of dollars," according to a court filing. 

The filing claims Bankman lobbied his son to increase his salary from $200,000 a year to $1 million a year, invoking his mother to push this forward. The couple received a $16.4 million property in the Bahamas, paid using funds from FTX, the filing adds — as well as donations to Stanford, an appearance in a Super Bowl commercial and a Persian rug that cost more than $2,500.


Disclaimer: The former CEO and majority shareholder of The Block has disclosed a series of loans from former FTX and Alameda founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

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