Sam Bankman-Fried’s Stanford Professor Dad Cancels Classes

Joseph Bankman, the Stanford Law School professor and father of disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, has canceled the classes he was supposed to teach next year at the prestigious school.

According to a course update from Stanford Law School dated Oct. 31, Bankman was on the docket to teach the tax policy class next year. But the most recent course catalog shows the class was canceled.

A current Stanford law student who previously took one of Bankman's classes also confirmed to The Standard that the professor has canceled his class.

Stanford Law School and Bankman did not return requests for comment.

Bankman could be clearing his calendar in anticipation of needing to help his 30-year-old son, known as SBF, who hasn't been accused of a crime yet but could face serious criminal charges.

The founder of large Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange FTX, SBF was once worth $26 billion. However, earlier this month the exchange collapsed amid allegations he mismanaged customer funds, and Bankman flew to the Bahamas to help his son.

Former students of SBF's father said he was a "softie" and cared deeply about students. Mid-career, he became a licensed psychologist.

That care extends to his son. "I’ll be spending substantially all of my resources on Sam’s defense," he wrote to the director of a nonprofit that could no longer be funded through the FTX Foundation.

"I feel really grateful for the support my parents are still giving me throughout all of this," Bankman-Fried said this week in a virtual appearance at the NYTimes DealBook Summit.

Once a billionaire lauded for his desire to save the world, crypto's chosen son is now looking more like the classic millennial. At the DealBook conference, he said he is now worth "close to nothing" and has just one working credit card left.

SBF's mom, Stanford Law professor Barbara Fried, will also not teach any classes next year at the law school.

Could a move back to his childhood Palo Alto home be on the horizon?