Stanford University reportedly expressed its intention to return all the gifts it received from the now-defunct FTX Trading Ltd. The California-based private research university is said to have funds from Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed crypto exchange firm, and the institution said these were mostly for pandemic-related prevention and research.

As per CoinTelegraph, Stanford University received a total of $5.5 million from groups related to FTX between November 2021 and May 2022. The university said it plans to hand back all the funds it got from the bankrupt crypto exchange firm.

This information was said to have been relayed by the university’s spokesperson via email on Tuesday, Sept. 19. Part of the statement from Stanford University reads, “We have been in discussions with attorneys for the FTX debtors to recover these gifts and we will be returning the funds in their entirety.”

Moreover, the educational institution also clarified that the “gifts” it received were from the FTX Foundation and other companies that have links to Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto firm. In any case, the school may have been picked as a recipient since SBF’s parents - Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried - are both former law professors at Stanford Law School. They were also said to be legal scholars before their teaching stint there.

Meanwhile, Crypto Potato mentioned that Stanford University decided to return the FTX gifts shortly after Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents were accused of misappropriating funds. Investors at FTX alleged that Bankman and Fried diverted millions of cash from the company’s funds for their own enrichment.

In response to the claims, the lawyer of the Bankman and Fried couple said the allegations are not true. The attorney described the move to involve SBF’s parents in FTX’s issues as a ploy to threaten the pair. “This is a dangerous attempt to intimidate Joe and Barbara and undermine the jury process just days before their child’s trial begins,” he said.

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