Breaking: Judge Unseals Names of Two Sponsors of FTX Co-Founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s $250 Million Bond

A federal judge agreed with court arguments that the identities of the two people funding Sam Bankman Fried’s (SBF) $250 million bond should be made public. As a result, the judge has revealed the names of the two sponsors.

The two previously unidentified sponsors of the $250 million bond are Larry Kramer and Andreas Paepcke. They both seem to be associated with Stanford University, where SBF’s parents work, Insider reports. 

Larry Kramer, a former dean of Stanford University’s law school, paid $500,000 to the bond, according to court documents unsealed on Wednesday afternoon. Records reveal that a second person, Andreas Paepcke, who claims to be a research scientist at Stanford University, contributed $200,000 to the bond.

Bankman-Fried’s parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, who are both professors at Stanford University’s law school, have also contributed to the bond. They guaranteed the value of their home in Palo Alto, California, where the FTX founder is allowed to remain ahead of a criminal trial on fraud charges.

According to Kramer, SBF’s parents are good friends of his and his wife.

“Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried have been close friends of my wife and I since the mid-1990s,” Kramer wrote in an email. “During the past two years, while my family faced a harrowing battle with cancer, they have been the truest of friends – bringing food, providing moral support, and frequently stepping in at moment’s notice to help. In turn, we have sought to support them as they face their own crisis.”

In addition, he claimed he had no business interest in the $500,000 he paid for the bond. Paepcke and Kramer’s names have been kept secret in the weeks since the FTX co-founder’s detention on the grounds that doing so would subject the two to harassment.

The attorneys were given a chance by Kaplan to challenge his ruling. The names of Kramer and Paepke were revealed on Wednesday even though they had submitted paperwork announcing their intention to appeal but omitted to do so in a separate request asking the appeal court to stay Kaplan’s ruling.

The bond has also been funded in part by Sam Bankman-Fried parents,  both of whom teach at Stanford University’s law school. They assured the value of their Palo Alto, California, residence, where the founder of FTX is permitted to stay pending a criminal trial on fraud-related allegations.

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