Posted March 27, 2025 at 7:55 pm EST.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman nominee Paul Atkins said that he was “concerned” about public reports that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents and Stanford University profited from the fraudulent crypto exchange, in response to questions at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee Thursday.
Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana used his allotted five minutes in the hearing to question Atkins about what the SEC knew regarding the former kingpin’s parents and their ties to the crypto crash.
Atkins said he did not know what work the SEC had done investigating these ties other than what has been publicly reported, given he was not at the Commission at the time of the FTX crisis in late 2022. However, he agreed to review the work the SEC has done investigating the involvement of Bankman-Fried’s parents and their ties to Stanford Law School at Kennedy’s request.
“Like you, I am concerned about those reports,” Atkins said.
“Every time you come to this committee, I’m going to pounce on you like a ninja to find out what the SEC has done, because I don’t think the SEC’s done a damn thing,” Kennedy told the SEC Chair nominee.
“Sure,” Atkins replied.
The hearing had members of the committee question Atkins alongside Comptroller of the Currency nominee Jonathan Gould, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury nominee Luke Petitt, and Federal Transit Administrator nominee Marcus Molinaro. The hearing was the first step in the confirmation process for the four Trump nominees, each of whom are expected to be quickly confirmed by the Senate after their approval by the committee.
Unchained first reported that Atkins would be Trump’s nominee for the role in December. Atkins, who was a commissioner for the SEC under George W. Bush, is known to be a libertarian-leaning conservative with a preference for light-touch regulation that prioritizes innovation, including that in the digital assets space.
Read More: Trump Taps Paul Atkins for Next SEC Chair, Making Good on His Crypto Promises
SBF Parents’ Tie-Ups With FTX
Bankman-Fried’s parents, Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, were sued by FTX in September 2023 for allegedly using their “influence and status” to enrich themselves at the company’s expense. The couple had received millions in cash and gifts, including a $16 million villa in the Bahamas.
Bankman had served as a “de facto officer, director, and/or manager,” according to the plaintiffs before becoming a senior advisor in its non-profit arm, the FTX Foundation. Fried also advised her son, though she never held an official role at the company. The lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice, meaning that it can be reintroduced, last month.
Republicans Still Aggrieved By SBF
Kennedy’s questions also alluded to a concern amongst many in the crypto industry, and conservatives in particular, that Bankman-Fried was let off easy, despite his 25-year prison sentence, after his crypto exchange collapsed due to his millions of dollars of public donations to Democratic candidates. A major point of contention is that the illicit campaign finance charges were not included in the DOJ’s indictment against SBF.
Bankman-Fried was the second-largest donor to Democrats in the leadup to the 2022 midterm elections, giving $40 million to liberal candidates and political action committee funds specifically allocated for the midterms and $70 million in the 18 months prior.
However, Bankman-Fried claimed that he also gave tens of millions to Republican candidates, much of which was siphoned through former FTX executive Ryan Salame, who is currently serving a 7.5-year prison sentence for making illegal campaign finance contributions. Bankman-Fried has stuck with this narrative since being found guilty of fraud and conspiracy in federal court, telling Tucker Carlson in an interview earlier this month that he had given to Republicans “as much as Democrats” and hinting at having become more conservative in recent years.
Read More: FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years for Historic Fraud
“I had a good relationship, probably better, with Republicans in DC as with Democrats by that point in time, though it wasn’t public,” Bankman-Fried said about his political connections when FTX was charged by the DOJ.
Bankman-Fried’s parents have reportedly sought a pardon from President Trump, which perhaps explains the motivations for the former FTX CEO’s interview with Carlson.
Colleges in the Crosshairs
Kennedy’s demand that Atkins look into the role he believes Stanford Law School could have played in the FTX crisis also reflects a broader conservative skepticism of elite universities nationwide.
Bankman-Fried’s parents were on faculty there at the time of the FTX crash and had donated $5.5 million to the school. In 2023 the university said that it would return the funds.
A New Day at the SEC
Kennedy was the only senator to ask Atkins about the FTX crisis, and the rest of the hearing broke along party lines with the Republicans happy to question someone they see as a more reasonable SEC Chairman in comparison to Atkins’ predecessor Gary Gensler, and the Democrats raising concerns about Atkins’ role as an SEC commissioner in the leadup to the 2008 financial crisis.
Committee Chair Tim Scott pressed Atkins on the mood of the agency and discrimination against crypto companies, to which Atkins promised to treat each industry fairly, especially in light of Operation Choke Point 2.0, a term used by the crypto industry to characterize alleged discrimination by federal regulators against crypto companies.
Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, pressed Atkins on potential conflicts of interest that may arise from his role as CEO of Potomak Global Partners, a regulatory compliance consultancy that serves many clients overseen by the SEC. Atkins said he would divest from his stake in Potomak within three months of his confirmation in an ethics disclosure filing submitted before the hearing.
Read More: Ahead of Debanking Hearings, Industry Is Divided on Political Strategy
Senators on the committee are permitted to ask follow-on questions for the record until tomorrow at 12pm ET, to which the nominees must respond by March 31st. Once the committee approves the nominees, as it is expected to do, the nominees will face a confirmation vote in the Senate. The date of the Senate vote has not yet been announced.
Bankman-Fried’s parents and Stanford University did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
