The Justice Department made the announcement on Wednesday that it will be seizing millions of Robinhood shares. Robinhood is a popular app for trading stocks. Bankman-Fried, the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and another defunct cryptocurrency company are disputing who owns their shares. According to Reuters, Attorney Seth Shapiro told a virtual court hearing that the Department of Justice is working to take custody of the shares rather than let them be held up in a bankruptcy dispute.
Bankman-Fried, FTX’s new bosses, bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi, and FTX creditor Yonatan Ben Shimon all claimed the Robinhood stake in a December 22 court filing. Shapiro told US Judge John Dorsey that forfeiture, a separate legal process that prevents criminals from profiting from their crimes, will likely settle the four-way share dispute.
Bankman-Fried said in May that he owned 7.6% of Robinhood, which was bought for $648 million by a holding company based in Antigua called Emergent Fidelity Technologies. At the closing bell on Wednesday, Robinhood shares traded at $8.36, which means Emergent now owns just over $470 million in the company.
