Silvergate Bank and its CEO Alan Lane have been accused of “aiding and abetting” a “multi-billion dollar fraud scheme orchestrated by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)” and two of his entities, FTX and Alameda Research, in a recently proposed class action lawsuit. . lawsuit.
The proposed class action lawsuit was archived in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on February 14 by attorneys representing a San Francisco-based FTX user who, like all other FTX customers, was left without about $ 20,000 worth of crypto when the exchange crashed last year.
Plaintiff Soham Bhatia alleges that Silvergate Bank, its parent company Silvergate Capital Corporation and CEO Alan Lane were aware of Alameda Research’s use of FTX client funds and accused them of concealing “the true nature of FTX ” to his clients.
“At all relevant times, Silvergate, Bankman-Fried and Lane were each co-conspirators of the other,” according to the lawsuit, which adds:
silver door $YES is now the shortest action (73% float)
Yes, the bank that the class action lawsuit claims “directly aided and abetted the FTX fraud.” pic.twitter.com/k2zSb41pgD
— Yoda Research (@YodaResearch) February 14, 2023
Silvergate and Lane aided and abetted, encouraged and substantially assisted Bankman-Fried in jointly perpetrating a fraudulent scheme against Plaintiff and the class.
“By aiding, abetting, encouraging, and substantially assisting in the wrongful acts, omissions, and other wrongdoing alleged above, Defendants acted mindfully of their wrongdoing and realized that their conduct would substantially help achieve their unlawful design.”
The lawsuit seeks a combination of damages, restitution and return of proceeds in the amount to be determined at trial.
However, the lawsuit still needs to be certified by the district court, which is a necessary step before it can proceed as a class action.
Related: Crypto Bank Silvergate Ranks as Second Shortest Stock on Wall Street
The latest proposed lawsuit is just another class action lawsuit filed against Silvergate in the last two months.
On Dec. 14, plaintiff Joewy Gonzalez filed a similar class action lawsuit in the Southern District of California Court, charging Silvergate with its alleged role in “promoting FTX investment fraud” by aiding and abetting the cryptocurrency exchange when it placed the deposits of FTX users in the Alameda bank accounts.
On January 10, a class action lawsuit was filed against Silvergate Capital Corporation in the United States District Court for Southern California alleging that Silvergate’s platform failed to detect money laundering cases “in amounts greater than $425 million” involving to South American money launderers.
On February 6, algorithmic trading firm Statistica Capital filed an alleged class action lawsuit against Signature Bank alleging that it had “actual knowledge of and substantially facilitated the now infamous FTX fraud.”
We do have to do some reading, but this is a very clear description of the role of Signature Bank, the intertwining of FTX-Alameda funds and all of that.
It takes industry experts to reveal the internal dynamics and this is what happens here. https://t.co/0DCcYPUDlT
— Simon Lelieveldt – [email protected]…n.social (@finhstamsterdam) February 13, 2023
“In particular, Signature was aware of and allowed the pooling of FTX client funds within its proprietary blockchain-based payment network, Signet,” he wrote.
Cointelegraph reached out to Silvergate for comment but did not receive a response by press time.
