The U.S. Department of Justice is working to seize $465 million worth of Robinhood Markets Inc HOOD shares associated with Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the collapsed FTX cryptocurrency exchange.
What Happened: The prosecutors are not considering the 56 million Robinhood shares to be a part of the bankruptcy estate, U.S. Attorney Seth Shapiro told Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey, reported Reuters.
Competing claims to the Robinhood shares could be settled in a forfeiture proceeding, according to Shapiro.
See Also: 10 Best Robinhood Alternatives To Use In 2023
Why It Matters: Bankman-Fried, indicted on eight charges related to the collapse of FTX and Alameda Research, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday in a New York Federal Court.
Charges include conspiracy to commit wire and securities frauds, money laundering, and conspiracy to avoid campaign finance regulations.
Claims to the Robinhood shares have been made by BlockFi, FTX, and liquidators in Antigua, according to Reuters.
Late last month, FTX had attempted to stop cryptocurrency trading platform BlockFi from claiming the Robinhood shares, saying they were owned by Alameda Research.
BlockFi had sued Bankman-Fried’s holding company Emergent Fidelity Technologies seeking the shares which were allegedly placed as collateral in November.
Price Action: On Wednesday, Robinhood shares closed 3.5% higher at $8.36 and fell 0.1% in the after-hours trading, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Photo by Cointelegraph on Wikimedia
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