Suspected fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said his parents, who are both Stanford Law professors, received physical threats as a result of the collapse of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange founded by their son.
Bankman-Fried’s father, Joseph Bankman, and mother, Barbara Fried, appeared alongside Bankman-Fried at a federal court in Manhattan on Jan. 3. According to Reuters, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers disclosed that both professors have become “the target of intense media scrutiny, harassment, and threat” in recent weeks.
The filing stated that Bankman-Fried’s parents “have received a steady stream of threatening correspondence, including communications expressing a desire that they suffer physical harm.”
Neither Professor Bankman nor Professor Fried will be teaching at Stanford Law School this quarter. Both professors live on campus with their son Sam Bankman-Fried, who pled not guilty to criminal charges and is under house arrest in his parents’ Stanford residence.
In response to nearby residents’ safety concerns, Stanford’s Department of Public Safety hired temporary security around the Bankman and Fried residence through an external vendor, wrote University spokesperson Dee Mostofi.
“There will be a few temporary and limited road closures on certain private university streets,” Mostofi wrote. Mostofi did not comment on whether security measures have changed in response to recent allegations.
Bankman-Fried said in an interview with Puck that people were attempting to come to the house to make a citizen’s arrest and that one “citizen vigilante” was stopped by guards.
The Daily has reached out to Bankman and Fried for comment.