Stanford University to return FTX donations worth $5.5M

After the FTX debtors sued Sam-Bankman-Fried’s par­ents Tues­day, Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty was found to be tan­gled up with FTX funds.

Stan­ford received more than $5.5 mil­lion in dona­tions from the FTX Group, which were alleged­ly direct­ed to the Cal­i­for­nia uni­ver­si­ty by Joe Bankman, SBF’s father and a long­time fac­ul­ty mem­ber at Stanford.

In a state­ment sent to Block­works, a Stan­ford spokesper­son acknowl­edged the dona­tions and pledged to send the mon­ey back to the debtors.

“Stan­ford received gifts from the FTX Foun­da­tion and FTX-relat­ed com­pa­nies large­ly for pan­dem­ic-relat­ed pre­ven­tion and research. We have been in dis­cus­sions with attor­neys for the FTX debtors to recov­er these gifts and we will be return­ing the funds in their entire­ty,” the spokesper­son wrote. 

Bankman, a tax lawyer, served as a senior advi­sor to the FTX Foun­da­tion, the phil­an­thropic divi­sion of the for­mer Amer­i­can cryp­to exchange. 

Bankman’s job came with a $200,000 salary and a pos­si­ble “dis­cre­tionary bonus,” accord­ing to the Tues­day suit.

The suit alleges that Bankman “led the charge” in steer­ing $5.5 mil­lion in funds to Stan­ford from Novem­ber 2021 to May 2022. 

It also details the numer­ous times he appar­ent­ly tried to send mon­ey orig­i­nat­ing from FTX and Alame­da to Stanford. 

“Bankman owed a fidu­cia­ry duty to FTX Trad­ing, Alame­da, Alame­da Ltd., and FTX US, and each of their sub­sidiaries and affil­i­ates,” the debtors wrote. 

They con­tin­ued, “Bankman’s repeat­ed efforts to direct funds from the FTX Group to Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty con­sti­tutes a fla­grant breach of those duties, as they effec­tive­ly enriched Bankman’s employ­er (Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty) at the expense of the FTX Group.”

Don’t miss the next big sto­ry – join our free dai­ly newslet­ter.