SBF and FTX fraud 'aided and abetted' by Silvergate Bank, alleges lawsuit

cointelegraph.com:

Silvergate Bank and its CEO Alan Lane have been accused of “aiding and abetting” a “multibillion-dollar fraudulent scheme orchestrated by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)” and two of his entities, FTX and Alameda Research, in a newly proposed class action lawsuit.

The proposed class-action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court of the Northern District of California on Feb. 14 by lawyers representing a San Francisco-based FTX user who — just like all other FTX customers — was frozen out of around $20,000 in crypto when the exchange collapsed last year.

Plaintiff Soham Bhatia alleges that Silvergate Bank, its parent company Silvergate Capital Corporation and CEO Alan Lane were aware of the use of FTX customer funds by Alameda Research and has accused them of concealing “the true nature of FTX” from its customers.

“At all relevant times, Silvergate, Bankman-Fried and Lane were each co-conspirators of the other,” according to the lawsuit, adding:

Silvergate $SI is now the most shorted stock (73% of float)Yep the bank who according to the class-action lawsuit directly „aided and abetted FTX’s fraud“ pic.twitter.com/k2zSb41pgD

Silvergate and Lane aided and abetted, encouraged and substantially assisted Bankman-Fried in jointly perpetrating a fraudulent scheme upon Plaintiff and the class.

The suit seeks a combination of damages, restitution and disgorgement of profits with the amount to be determined in trial.

However, the lawsuit is yet 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 the second- most-shorted stock on Wall Street

The latest proposed lawsuit is just another class-action complaint filed against