A court-approved settlement involving the FTX-linked Silvergate Bank, which closed in 2023, might pay up to more than 46,000 plaintiffs.
One of the class-action cases against Silvergate Bank, which is friendly to cryptocurrencies, in California is asking those who have FTX or Alameda Research accounts to join.
A group of investors invited Silvergate users who put money into a “FTX- or Alameda-related account” between 2019 and 2022 to make claims for a settlement that was filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of California.
The lawsuit says that investors have until January 30 to either opt out or file a claim as part of a $10 million settlement that “resolves a lawsuit over whether Silvergate Bank, Silvergate Capital Corporation, and Alan J. Lane aided and abetted tortious conduct on the part of FTX, Alameda, and Sam Bankman-Fried.”
A court petition from December 8 asked for approval and claimed, The Settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate. It marks a big recovery from the bankrupt Silvergate and will give more help, on top of what was already given in the FTX Bankruptcy, to those who were hurt by the FTX cryptocurrency exchange’s multi-billion-dollar collapse.
On February 9, Judge Ruth Bermudez Montenegro set a final hearing to look at the settlement. This gave any investors connected to FTX and Alameda more than a month to bring claims. Court documents say that the FTX bankruptcy case has gotten more than 46,000 possible claimants by mail. This could mean that the $10 million compensation would be divided up among them.
At the time of its collapse in November 2022, Silvergate was one of the few US banks that were receptive to cryptocurrencies and had ties to the FTX exchange. In March 2023, the bank chose to stop doing business.
The story of FTX’s criminal charges keeps moving on
Many of the criminal proceedings against former FTX and Alameda executives have been resolved in the last three years, but there are still some civil actions in court and one possible prosecution of someone connected to the exchange.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, and Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, are all in federal prison for their parts in the collapse. Two additional FTX executives, Nishad Singh and Gary Wang, served their time.
Michelle Bond, Salame’s wife, is being charged with campaign finance violations in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Her lawyers said that prosecutors got Salame to plead guilty by promising not to go after Bond. On March 4, there will be another evidence hearing in Bond’s case.