The Federal prosecutors have reportedly seized nearly $50 million of Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX, from the account of Farmington State Bank, a small institution based in the tiny town of Farmington, Washington, according to a January 23rd report.
The bank, which had previously been known for its specialization in agricultural loans to farmers, had been acquired by Alameda Research, a trading firm owned by Sam Bankman-Fried, for $11.5 million just last year.
However, it appears that the bank’s association with Bankman-Fried has now led to its undoing, as prosecutors have seized the funds as part of an effort to track down nearly $700 million worth of assets for forfeiture. SBF of FTX himself has pleaded not guilty to eight charges of fraud and is scheduled to face trial in October.
It’s worth noting that Farmington State Bank was a relatively unknown entity before SBF’s acquisition. With just three employees and no online banking or credit card services, it was the 26th-smallest bank in the US out of around 4,800.
The bank did rebrand itself as “Moonstone Bank” just before Alameda’s investment, and its website suggested that it wanted to “support the evolution of next-generation finance,” but it didn’t mention cryptocurrency specifically.
It remains to be seen how this development will impact Alameda Research and Deltec International Group, the parent company of Farmington State Bank, which had reportedly received a $50 million loan from FTX. The situation is certainly one to keep an eye on as it unfolds.
BlockFi’s Billion-Dollar Ties To FTX
BlockFi, the once high-flying crypto lender, has been revealed to have had over $1.2 billion in assets tied up with Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX and Alameda Research, according to mistakenly uploaded financials.
The company filed for bankruptcy protection in late November and had greater exposure to FTX. The unredacted BlockFi filing shows $415.9 million worth of assets linked to FTX and $831.3 million in loans to Alameda as of January 14th.
Bankman-Fried’s firms were wrapped in FTX’s November bankruptcy, which reeled the crypto markets. Lawyers for BlockFi had previously stated that the loan to Alameda was valued at $671 million, with an additional $355 million in digital assets frozen on the FTX platform.
However, the financial presentation was assembled by M3 Partners, an advisor to the creditor committee, and is entirely composed of BlockFi clients who are owed money by the bankrupt lender.
