The father of disgraced cryptocurrency kingpin Sam Bankman-Fried sat on the advisory board of the liberal dark money behemoth Arabella Advisors and likely had access to the group’s funds, a federal lawsuit filed against Bankman-Fried’s parents on Tuesday charged.
The lawsuit, filed by Bankman-Fried’s defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, cites communications from the elder Bankman in which he discussed having access to Arabella funds. The suit also reveals that FTX had a special arrangement with the largest Arabella affiliate, the New Venture Fund, through which the crypto trading firm and its donors could contribute to “select charitable causes.” Sam Bankman-Fried is accused of stealing billions of dollars from FTX customer funds to keep his hedge fund afloat and to donate to political causes.
Though the extent of Allan Joseph Bankman’s involvement in the Arabella advisory board or the level of control he had over the consultancy is unclear, the lawsuit shows the elder Bankman discussing Arabella and its corresponding non-profit, New Venture Fund, as vehicles to move money around and obscure its origin.
[Interesting, to say the least, but one has to wonder whether Arabella and New Venture might have been among SBF’s victims rather than enablers. New Venture claims it gave grants from SBF’s contributions, but didn’t do anything else with the money, and thus far haven’t suggested that they lost money in the FTX meltdown. It’s still worth watching. — Ed]
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