Prosecutors seize SBF’s $50M deposit to small financial institution

Prosecutors seized slightly below $50 million belonging to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) held in Farmington State Financial institution on Jan. 4, in response to a Yahoo Finance (YF) report on Jan. 24.

The entire quantity seized was solely $500 in need of $50 million, in response to the YF report. The financial institution specialised in agricultural loans to farmers and had solely three workers when SBF deposited this quantity. It additionally didn’t supply on-line banking companies or bank cards and had a web value of $5.7 million.

Alameda invests in Farmington

SBF’s enterprise capital Alameda Analysis invested $11.5 million within the financial institution in March 2022, in response to a New York Occasions (NYT) report revealed in November 2022,

Farmington has been steadily amassing about $10 million in deposits for a decade — by the third quarter of 2022, this quantity elevated to $84 million, in response to the NYT report. Of this improve, $71 million got here from new accounts.

The financial institution additionally modified its identify to Moonstone Financial institution and began providing on-line banking companies after FTX’s funding, in response to the NYT report.

The previous head of the Impartial Neighborhood Bankers of America, Camden Wonderful, reportedly shared his ideas in regards to the funding, in response to the NYT report. He mentioned:

“The truth that an offshore hedge fund that was mainly a crypto agency was shopping for a stake in a tiny financial institution for multiples of its said ebook worth ought to have raised large pink flags for the F.D.I.C., state regulators and the Federal Reserve. It’s simply astonishing that each one of this bought accepted.”

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