Crypto and stock trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) has executed a nine-figure buyback of its own shares from FTX’s former executives, including disgraced boss Sam Bankman-Fried and his fellow co-founder Gary Wang.
The purchase secured 55,273,469 HOOD shares worth $605.7 million.
- Robinhood entered into the purchase agreement with the United States Marshal Service (USMS) on August 30, and closed the transaction the following day.
- “The Company funded the purchase of the Shares from corporate cash available from its balance sheet,” stated the agreement’s Form 8-K filing on Thursday.
- Robinhood’s Board of Directors had already authorized the company to pursue purchasing most or all of the shares on February 8, 2023. Before that, Bankman-Fried and Wang owned the shares via the former’s hedge fund Emergent Fidelity Technologies, which filed for bankruptcy at the time.
- The government confiscated close to $700 million worth of Bankman-Fried’s assets in January, including $455 million worth of HOOD shares, despite his lawyers’ fight to keep them. Prosecutors believe those shares were purchased using former FTX customers’ stolen money.
- Robinhood’s average purchase price per share was $10.96 – below the market’s current trading value of $11.18.