Svmuu News Sam Bankman-Fried's parents, Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, gave their first televised interview to CNN, arguing that their son's conviction was unjust and claiming that FTX customer funds have been fully repaid. Joseph Bankman stated that "the money was always there," claiming that companies under FTX held billions of dollars in additional assets. Barbara Fried said everyone has been fully repaid with interest ranging from 18% to 43%.
At the end of March, the FTX Recovery Trust will proceed with its fourth distribution round, expected to distribute approximately $2.2 billion, bringing the total recovered amount to around $10 billion. Some categories of US customers are expected to achieve 100% recovery, with one category reaching 120%. However, all distributions are denominated in US dollars and calculated based on asset prices at the time of the bankruptcy filing in November 2022, when Bitcoin was priced around $16,800. Currently, Bitcoin is trading around $69,000. FTX creditor representative Sunil Kavuri publicly stated that "FTX creditors have not been made whole."
Joseph Bankman described the transfer of customer funds to Alameda Research as routine lending activity. However, this claim contradicts the regulatory frameworks in Hong Kong, the EU, and proposed US legislation following FTX's collapse, which prohibit the commingling of customer assets. Barbara Fried called the prosecution "inherently political." The family is pushing for a pardon from President Donald Trump, but Trump stated in a January interview with The New York Times that he would not consider pardoning Sam Bankman-Fried. On Polymarket, the probability of this event occurring is 12%. Sam Bankman-Fried's appeal is still ongoing.