Like every good parent, Sam Bankman-Fried’s mother and father have stood firmly behind their son from the start of his crypto profession until his fall from grace, but their staunch support and up to date courtroom antics have put them under heavy scrutiny.
Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, each professors at Stanford University, sat within the third row of Bankman-Fried’s extradition hearing within the Bahamas, where their animated expressions were in full view.
Bankman, who received payments from FTX and was heavily involved within the doomed platform’s operations, was seen sporadically plugging his ears throughout the method, while Fried laughed several times.
Latest FTX CEO John Ray revealed he can be investigating Bankman and Fried’s role of their son’s alleged cryptocurrency scam at the corporate, particularly after it was confirmed that Bankman had given Bankman-Fried “legal advice” and that the family was given money payments.
Careers
Each Bankman and Fried teach law at Stanford University, where their alleged involvement of their son’s FTX schemes has change into a “subject of gossip” amongst colleagues, the Latest York Times reported.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents, each Standford University law professors, have fallen under scrutiny of their son’s alleged crypto scheme.AFP via Getty Images
Based on his faculty biography, Bankman makes a speciality of tax law and has written two casebooks on the topic. Along with being a practicing lawyer, Bankman is a clinical psychologist and teaches mental health law.
Fried is a professor emerita of law at Stanford. Like her husband, she also wrote about tax policy, but her “scholarly interests lie on the intersection of law, economics, and philosophy,” her biography states. She is a three-time winner of the John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Ties to Democrats
Bankman helped write Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s failed laws to simplify the tax code in 2016. He then signed a letter of support for the bill with 53 other law professors.
Joseph Bankman was a paid worker of FTX.Stanford University
Barbara Fried founded super political motion committee Mind The Gap in 2018Stanford University
Bankman also has a history of donating 1000’s of dollars to Democratic campaigns, including Warren.
Fried co-founded super political motion committee Mind The Gap in 2018, based on the Latest York Times, though she resigned in November. The group uses statistical evaluation to find out the dollar-value influence of donations on Democrats running for the House of Representatives.
Fried was closely tied to her son’s donations massive donations to Democrats before the 2022 midterms, Business Insider reported. Bankman-Fried was charged with using tens of tens of millions of dollars in Alameda funds to illegally make political donations “to candidates and committees related to each Democrats and Republicans.” The White House has not said whether Biden would return the fraudulent money Bankman-Fried donated to his 2020 political campaign.
Bankman-Fried and his mother on the Magistrate’s Court in Nassau, Bahamas, Tuesday.Bloomberg via Getty Images
Roles in FTX
Bankman was a paid FTX worker for nearly a 12 months, a spokesperson for the family told The Wall Street Journal, but mostly worked on charity projects for the corporate.
Fried was not a paid worker on the cryptocurrency company.
Ray confirmed Tuesday that “the family did receive payments.”
Moreover, Bankman-Fried bought a $16.4 million house within the Bahamas for his parents in FTX’s name. The luxurious beachfront property was for use as a “vacation home,” though Bankman-Fried later claimed he didn’t intend for his parents to make use of it long-term.
“It was intended to be the corporate’s property. I don’t know the way that was papered in,” he said.
The couple has been living within the Bahamas with their son for the past month, the Wall Street Journal said.
