For months, John Jay Ray III, the corporate turnaround expert who was appointed to oversee the bankruptcy of the FTX crypto exchange, has attacked the company’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, accusing him of “old-fashioned embezzlement.” Now, Mr. Ray has a new target: Mr. Bankman-Fried’s parents, the New York Times reported. FTX yesterday filed a lawsuit in federal court in Delaware accusing Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried, longtime Stanford law professors, of using their “access and influence within the FTX enterprise to enrich themselves.” The lawsuit seeks to claw back millions of dollars the couple received from their son. In the complaint, FTX’s lawyers said that Mr. Bankman and Ms. Fried got a $10 million cash gift from Mr. Bankman-Fried, as well as a $16.4 million home in the Bahamas, where FTX was based, that was purchased by the exchange. The suit also claims that Mr. Bankman helped cover up complaints by a former lawyer for his son’s business, and that Ms. Fried coached Mr. Bankman-Fried and another FTX executive to evade disclosure requirements for political donations.
