- A federal judge has unsealed the names of the anonymous sponsors of Samuel Bankman-Fried's $250 million bond.
- They are Larry Kramer and Andreas Paepcke, both of whom have ties to Stanford, where SBF's parents work.
The two anonymous sponsors of Sam Bankman-Fried's $250 million bail have been revealed.
On Wednesday, unsealed court records identified the FTX founder's bail guarantors as Larry Kramer, a former dean of Stanford Law School, and Andreas Paepcke, a senior research scientist at Stanford. Kramer contributed $500,000 toward Bankman-Fried's bond, and Paepcke contributed $200,000, according to the records.
Bankman-Fried's father, Joseph Bankman, and mother, Barbara Fried, are both professors at Stanford Law and also contributed to his bond — guaranteeing the value of their home.
A federal judge unsealed the names of Kramer and Paepcke after a group of media organizations — including Insider — argued in court that the identities should be made public.
Here's what we know about Kramer and Paepcke:
Who is Larry Kramer?
Kramer, who contributed $500,000 toward Bankman-Fried's bond, according to court records unsealed Wednesday. He graduated from Brown University in 1980 with his A.B. in psychology and religious studies and received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1984, according to his Stanford Law bio page.
Early in his career, Kramer clerked for former US Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. and was a consultant for law firm Mayer Brown. Kramer taught at the law schools of NYU, the University of Chicago, and the University of Michigan before joining the faculty at Stanford Law School, where he was dean from 2004 to 2012.
His scholarly interests include "American legal history, constitutional law, federalism, separation of powers, the federal courts, conflict of laws, and civil procedure," according to his bio page. He has written dozens of research papers, as well as a book, "The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial Review."
Since 2012, Kramer has been president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, according to the his bio page on its website. Created by Hewlett Packard co-founder William Redington Hewlett, it's one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the US.
Kramer told Insider on Wednesday that his contribution toward Bankman-Fried's bond was made in a personal capacity and that he had "no business dealings or interest in this matter" otherwise.
"Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried have been close friends of my wife and I since the mid-1990s," Kramer said in an email. "During the past two years, while my family faced a harrowing battle with cancer, they have been the truest of friends – bringing food, providing moral support, and frequently stepping in at moment's notice to help. In turn, we have sought to support them as they face their own crisis."
Not much is known about Kramer's friendship with the couple, but Fried spoke about Kramer in a 2012 article in Stanford Law's magazine marking his departure from the position of dean.
"He was the dean of yes," Fried said in the article. "If he could possibly say yes, he turned himself inside out, professionally and personally, to make something happen."
The article notes that Fried "solicited memories from faculty members for a book of reminiscences" ahead of a farewell party held for Kramer.
In December, Kramer spoke about SBF's parents in a New York Times article about their place in the saga of FTX's collapse.
"I had a friend who said, 'You don't want to be seen with them,'" Kramer told the Times. "I don't see how this doesn't bankrupt them."
According to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks campaign finance and lobbying, Kramer has made at least eight political donations since 2005, all to Democratic politicians, including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, and more.
Who is Andreas Paepcke?
Andreas Paepcke—a research scientist in the computer science department at Stanford University— contributed $200,000 to Sam Bankman-Fried's $250 million bond, according to records. It remains unclear what Paepcke's ties to Sam Bankman-Fried (or his parents) exactly are.
His online presence is relatively thin. He has an official biography on Stanford's website where he's described as a "Senior Research Scientist and Director for Data Analytics" supporting the university's online teaching efforts. He also had a personal biography page hosted by a Stanford domain which has been taken down.
Paepcke's research seems to revolve largely around online learning. His personal biography page noted that his research interests include "user interfaces and systems for teaching and learning" and applying "machine learning technologies toward ecological causes."
His personal page also linked to an online bibliography which cited over 100 publications (the bibliography appears to have been taken down as of Wednesday). Paepcke's publications range from research on the relationship between video playback speed and learning outcomes to how individuals adjust their engagement in a course according to the grades they receive. He's also done interesting work on robots— examining how museum visitors interact with them and even how they can assist people with disabilities.
Before landing at Stanford, Paepcke worked as a researcher at Hewlett-Packard Laboratory, and as a research consultant at Xerox PARC, according to his official Stanford biography.
He received undergraduate and master's degrees in applied mathematics from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, according to his official Stanford biography.
On his personal page, Paepcke listed hobbies including "piano studies and simple composition, worrying, and poetry." In parentheticals, he described these hobbies as "some long neglected, but still bubbling below the surface." He also included the full text of a poem he wrote titled, Vaccuum, adding that he is "still maturing towards truly understanding poems."
Open Secrets lists nine political donations under the name of "Andreas Paepcke." They're all to Democratic candidates, ranging from sums of $250 to $300. The majority of those donations were made to Barack Obama in 2012. However, there is one donation to California congresswoman Julia Brownley, and one to Dan McCready, former Democratic congressional candidate in North Carolina, listed under the name on Open Secrets.
Paepcke didn't respond to a request for comment. Mark Botnick, a representative for Bankman-Fried, declined to comment for this story.