When the federal government acquired a stake in artificial intelligence giant Anthropic, it did so without paying a cent. The shares were seized from associates of convicted cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried as part of high-profile criminal prosecutions following the collapse of the FTX exchange. As Anthropic’s valuation has skyrocketed amid a historic boom in artificial intelligence, those forfeited equities have quietly moved through a complex legal and regulatory pipeline, ultimately landing in the hands of existing investors while questions linger over whether victims of the $11 billion fraud will ever see the money.
The origins of the holdings trace back to Anthropic’s 2022 Series B funding round. Bankman-Fried purchased $500 million worth of shares, representing 13.56% of the company at the time, using funds channeled through entities like Clifton Bay, an affiliate of his crypto hedge fund Alameda Research. Two of his top associates and close personal contacts, Caroline Ellison and Nishad Singh, also invested alongside him. Court records show that Singh acquired $40 million in shares, while Ellison purchased $10 million.
Following the spectacular implosion of FTX, Bankman-Fried was convicted in 2023 on multiple counts of fraud and money laundering, resulting in a 25-year prison sentence. Prosecutors established that he used Alameda Research to siphon billions of dollars from depositors. Four of his close executives subsequently pleaded guilty as co-conspirators, with three, including Ellison and Singh, testifying against him. Ellison served as CEO of Alameda Research, while Singh operated as an early FTX executive who misrepresented the exchange’s revenue to investors.
While Bankman-Fried’s own Anthropic stake was liquidated through bankruptcy proceedings in 2024—fetching $1.3 billion from a group of buyers that included an entity tied to a United Arab Emirates sovereign wealth fund—the shares belonging to Ellison and Singh took a different route. As part of their sentencing terms, a federal judge ordered them to forfeit their holdings as proceeds of their crimes. Court records show the federal government formally took ownership of Ellison’s shares in February 2025 and Singh’s in April of that year.
During Singh’s sentencing, defense attorney Andrew Goldstein noted that his client had purchased the shares prior to participating in any criminal conspiracy and could have mounted a legitimate legal claim to them. However, Singh agreed to surrender the equity as part of his plea agreement because it was deemed appropriate.
Once in federal possession, the shares entered a opaque forfeiture process overseen by the Department of Justice and managed by the U.S. Marshals Service Complex Assets Unit. Because Anthropic experienced unprecedented financial growth during this period—reaching a valuation of $61.5 billion in its March 2025 Series E funding round and climbing further in subsequent rounds—the value of the seized equities ballooned dramatically. Depending on the exact timing of the transactions in 2025, venture capital experts and financial analysts estimate the combined shares sold by the Marshals Service could have been worth anywhere from $250 million to over $1 billion.
The Marshals Service eventually sold the holdings to existing Anthropic investors, according to an individual familiar with the transaction. However, the exact sale date, identities of the buyers, pricing details, and total revenue generated by the government remain undisclosed. The Marshals Service declined to comment, and a Justice Department representative stated that information regarding asset sales and victim compensation is confidential.
Compensation for the millions of victims affected by the FTX collapse was originally slated to be handled through a Department of Justice remission process rather than standard court-supervised restitution. Prosecutors previously floated the possibility of collaborating with the Delaware bankruptcy court and its appointed legal counsel, Sullivan & Cromwell, to channel recovered funds back to creditors, mirroring procedures used in past financial fraud cases like Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
Yet, as of mid-year bankruptcy filings, the revenue generated from the sale of Ellison’s and Singh’s Anthropic shares does not appear to have been transferred directly to the FTX estate. While the estate reported receiving $638 million last year from assets seized by the Justice Department, court documents do not clarify the precise origin of those funds. The estate anticipates receiving approximately $400 million more from the government in the future, encompassing cryptocurrency and additional investments.
Victim advocates and legal experts emphasize that the ultimate distribution remains entirely at the discretion of the U.S. Attorney General. Sunil Kavuri, an FTX victim and vocal advocate for creditors, criticized the prospect of the federal government retaining the funds, calling it diabolical. Kavuri argued that victims have not been fully made whole because the bankruptcy court calculated losses using crypto valuations from the low ebb when FTX declared bankruptcy.
White-collar defense attorneys point out that the government occasionally retains portions of forfeited assets to cover the extensive costs incurred during prolonged prosecutions. As the legal maneuvering and asset distribution continue, neither the Justice Department nor representatives for the FTX bankruptcy estate have provided a definitive timeline for when—or if—the windfall from the former executives’ high-flying AI investments will reach those who lost money in the exchange’s collapse.
