Robert Granieri — the co-founder of trading firm Jane Street Group, which once gave jailed crypto titan Sam Bankman-Fried his big break in finance — was allegedly deceived into funding a plot to purchase AK-47s, Stinger missiles, and grenades for a coup in South Sudan, according to court papers.
Federal prosecutors in Arizona first charged Harvard Fellow Peter Ajak and Abraham Keech in March 2024 with conspiring to illegally export arms to South Sudan, their home country, to overthrow its government.
Both have pleaded not guilty.
Granieri, 53, allegedly provided $7 million in two payments after meeting Ajak in February 2024 at a Midtown Manhattan condominium, prosecutors said. Ajak’s lawyers stated in a May court filing, which was reviewed by The Post and first reported by Bloomberg, that Granieri’s financing was “vital to the plan.”
They claimed in the May 29 court document that without his support, the alleged conspiracy would have been impossible.
The attorney for the Jane Street founder, whose firm hired now-convicted fraudster and former FTX CEO Bankman-Fried in 2013, claimed he was misled by Ajak, whom he believed was a human rights activist.
“Granieri is a longtime supporter of human rights causes,” his lawyer was quoted by Bloomberg as saying. “In this case, the person Rob thought was a human rights activist defrauded Rob and lied about his intentions.”
The case also references chess champion Garry Kasparov, though he is not named as a defendant nor accused of any wrongdoing, for allegedly connecting Ajak with Granieri through their shared work with the Human Rights Foundation.
Ajak, a former child soldier who resettled in the US, studied at Harvard’s Kennedy School and worked as a World Bank economist before becoming a South Sudanese opposition activist.
He and Keech allegedly met with an undercover agent and inspected weapons in a Phoenix warehouse before their arrest, the May 29 motion said.
Defense attorneys allege US authorities were aware of the plan, citing a “public authority” defense and claiming that the State Department told Ajak in October 2023 it would not support non-democratic regime change.
They also accused prosecutors of selectively targeting Ajak and Keech, both black men, while sparing Granieri and Kasparov.
The financing was allegedly arranged through meetings, including some at the law firm Paul Hastings, where Ajak’s former pro bono attorney, Renata Parras, worked, according to the May filing.
PR guru Michael Holtzman, who previously advised the State Department, also attended some meetings, the filing claims. Prosecutors have not accused Parras or Holtzman of any wrongdoing.
The Post has approached Holtzman and Parras for comment.
South Sudan, slightly larger than France, became the world’s youngest country in 2011 after seceding from Sudan following more than 20 years of civil war.
The conflict displaced millions of people and drew attention from human rights activists across the globe, including actor George Clooney.
Despite its independence, South Sudan has struggled with continued violence between rival forces over the past 15 years.
Jane Street, known for its $20.5 billion in net trading revenue last year, has drawn attention for its success and Granieri’s philanthropy, including support for human rights causes and Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley.
Granieri, one of the firm’s four founders and the only one still working there, also supported causes backed by Kasparov.
Despite the company’s prominence, he maintains a low profile and is not featured on its website.
Jane Street is a quantitative trading firm, meaning its traders use mathematics and statistics to determine how to bet on certain assets or financial markets.
It boasts to be “a firm of puzzle solvers on and off the clock” and has even seen its profits surpass those of major banks such as Bank of America or Citigroup, allowing Granieri to fund ventures like the Scarlet Pearl casino resort in Mississippi.
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