The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is in the process of seizing Robinhood shares, worth about $460 million, that are linked to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). “We believe that these assets are not property of the bankruptcy estate or that they fall within the exceptions … of bankruptcy code,” a DOJ attorney told the judge overseeing the FTX bankruptcy case.

DOJ Seizing Robinhood Shares Linked to FTX

The U.S. government is in the process of seizing 56 million shares of Robinhood Markets Inc. (Nasdaq: HOOD), worth about $460 million, that are linked to the disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), said Seth Shapiro, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) at an FTX bankruptcy court hearing in Delaware Wednesday.

Shapiro told Judge John Dorsey, who oversees the FTX bankruptcy case:

We believe that these assets are not property of the bankruptcy estate or that they fall within the exceptions … of bankruptcy code.

According to Robinhood’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in May last year, Emergent Fidelity Technologies took a 7.6% stake in Robinhood, and Bankman-Fried was its sole director and majority owner.

Following the FTX bankruptcy filing, the ownership of the Robinhood shares is disputed by the new FTX management, Bankman-Fried, an individual FTX creditor, and crypto lender Blockfi which also filed for bankruptcy in November last year.

Due to multiple parties laying claims to the Robinhood shares, the…