Feds made $627 million selling SBF friends’ Anthropic stock, but could have held billions
Shares seized and sold
Anthropic’s Monday S-1 filing says the government sold 4,453,900 Series B shares in October 2025. The shares had been forfeited by former holders through legal proceedings, though the filing does not identify them.
The amount matches the combined shares Caroline Ellison and Nishad Singh bought in Anthropic’s 2022 fundraising round for $50 million. They later forfeited those shares to the government after pleading guilty to crimes related to their work with Bankman-Fried.
A much larger possible value
Anthropic bought the shares from the government at $140.9676 each, the same price it set for Series F-1 stock in a fundraising round the previous month. It then resold the shares to nine investors for the same $627 million, the filing says.
The shares amount to about a quarter of a percent of Anthropic today. At a hypothetical valuation of $1.5 trillion, they would be worth about $3.94 billion; Anthropic has not announced a price for its expected November IPO.
Questions over victim repayment
The Justice Department took ownership of Ellison’s and Singh’s shares by April 2025. The US Marshals Service’s Complex Assets Unit typically handles private-company shares acquired through criminal forfeiture.
Bankman-Fried’s separate $500 million in Anthropic shares went to FTX’s bankruptcy estate and was sold in 2024 for $1.3 billion. The proceeds were used to repay creditors, including FTX customers and investors.
Proceeds remain unresolved
Prosecutors told a federal judge that the Justice Department could create a claims process for victims or work with the FTX bankruptcy process to identify them and distribute forfeited funds. The government has not announced a compensation fund.
Court filings show the $627 million had not been transferred to the FTX estate as of June. Experts say the government could choose to keep the money, and the Justice Department and US Marshals Service did not immediately comment.
Key points
- The government sold 4,453,900 forfeited Anthropic shares for $627 million in October 2025.
- At a hypothetical $1.5 trillion valuation, the shares could be worth about $3.94 billion.
- Anthropic resold the shares to nine investors for the same price it paid the government.
- As of June, the proceeds had not been transferred to the FTX estate, and no victim fund had been announced.