- Stanford University says it will return FTX donations.
- The university received millions in “gifts” from SBF’s dad.
- SBF’s dad, Bankman, is embroiled in a lawsuit with FTX debtors.
California-based Stanford University has reportedly said it plans to return the “gifts” worth millions of dollars it received from the collapsed FTX crypto exchange.
The development comes after FTX debtors initiated a lawsuit on September 18 to recover millions of dollars believed to have been misappropriated by Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, both tenured law professors at the university.
Multi-Million Dollar Gifts
According to a September 19 email shared by a spokesperson of Stanford with Bloomberg, the prestigious university received multiple gifts worth “millions” from FTX Foundation and its related subsidiaries “for pandemic-related prevention and research.”
Sponsored
“We have been in discussions with attorneys for the FTX debtors to recover these gifts, and we will be returning the funds in their entirety,” the spokesperson said.
While the spokesperson didn’t quote a specific figure, the September 18 lawsuit by FTX against SBF’s parents revealed that Joseph Bankman donated over $5.5 million in FTX Group donations to his university employer.
SBF’s Dad Implicated
Bankman is at the center of a lawsuit alleging that his strategically self-secured “de facto officer” role at FTX enabled him to hand-select recipients of FTX Group charitable contributions, among them Stanford University.
“Bankman’s involvement with—and benefits from and at the expense of—the FTX Group increased toward the end of 2021, so much so that in December 2021, Bankman took a leave of absence from Stanford Law School to focus on the FTX Group,” the court filing read.
Per the filing, Bankman executed several other causes of his choosing at the university using FTX Group Money, among them awarding a former Stanford Law student “a free trip to France” and tickets to the Formula 1 Grand Prix on the company’s tab. The company later retained the student as an outside counsel.
Sponsored
Read what SBF said about the fall of FTX in his unposted Twitter thread:
SBF’s Unposted Twitter Thread Leaks: I’m “Broke” and “Hated”
In another development, a former FTX executive pleaded guilty. Stay updated:
Former FTX Executive to Forfeit $1.5B After Pleading Guilty
