Report: Legal Bills Will Likely Wipe Out SBF’s Parents

Among those facing financial ruin from the FTX collapse: the parents of the company’s founder.

That’s according to a report Monday (Dec. 12) from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that takes a closer look at FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and his parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, who have remained by their son’s side in the wake of his cryptocurrency company’s collapse.

The pair, both Standford law professors, have been with their son in the Bahamas — where FTX is based — the report stated, citing unnamed sources. And they have told friends their son’s mounting legal bills will likely wipe them out.

“We hope this gives us some wisdom,” Joseph Bankman reportedly said. “Otherwise, it would be too hard to take.”

Other friends of the couple — themselves legal scholars — have said Bankman-Fried’s ongoing public appearances could place him in more legal trouble, the report stated.

“They want him to protect himself, and he won’t,” Larry Kramer, a former dean at Stanford Law and longtime family friend, said of Bankman-Fried’s parents, per the report. “They’ve decided, ‘We’re not going to fight with our son.’”

Bankman-Fried — or SBF as he’s often called — is due to testify Tuesday (Dec. 13) as the House Financial Services Committee begins looking into the collapse of his former company.

Once one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, FTX fell apart in just a matter of days after reports surfaced last month that the platform had commingled funds with its affiliated trading company, the hedge fund Alameda Research.

SBF continues to argue he did not “knowingly commingle funds,” and has repeatedly blamed the failure on “a lack of oversight” and “pretty big mistakes I’m embarrassed to have made.”

He also insists he is a good businessman and has been increasingly shifting blame for FTX’s collapse to Alameda Research and its CEO Caroline Ellison.

“Still, the House panel will likely look for further insight after the FTX founder appeared to have admitted to commingling funds during a recorded YouTube interview with ‘investigative crypto journalist’ Coffeezilla, a conversation that has since garnered widespread mainstream coverage,” PYMNTS wrote Monday.

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