FTX's Extraordinary Expenses Under SBF

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), founder of FTX, and his staff have squandered millions of dollars of users' money on cartoons, books, or pineapple house.

On June 26, CEO John Ray, who is in charge of restructuring the FTX cryptocurrency exchange , pointed out many strange expenses of former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). Mr. Ray accused the SBF of throwing millions of dollars of users' money into projects that have nothing to do with crypto or Web3 .

According to the report, the founder of FTX gave $400,000 to a YouTube account that posts animated videos with content that advocates rationalism. Another $300,000 grant was sent by SBF to one person to write a book on the topic of understanding people.

John Ray said all of this money is from customers deposited in FTX. It is circulated through bank accounts controlled by FTX, the investment fund Alameda and various institutions controlled by the SBF.

FTX management also spent $ 1.8 million to buy real estate called "pineapple house". It is one of many real estate portfolios totaling $243 million for the Bahamian company. This exchange also invested 20 million USD in the non-profit organization Guarding Against Pandemics, run by SBF's younger brother, to fight the Covid-19 epidemic.

The above asset confirmation reports are all purchased with the customer's money.

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the FTX exchange. Photo: Coindesk

Bloomberg cited reports that FTX has now recovered $7 billion. However, the floor still owes customers about $8.7 billion.

CEO John Ray said the image that FTX's former leadership team tried to present to the public was just an illusion. "Customer deposits were misused by former SBF CEOs and other executives. They intentionally jammed many of their clients' funds, concealing their operations with the help of senior lawyers," Ray said. . As a result, auditing experts, blockchain asset analysts, and many other talents in the field have tried to track FTX's cash flow but have been sidetracked.

Earlier in November 2022, CNBC quoted a lawyer for FTX: "Under the bankruptcy law of the United States, the FTX cryptocurrency exchange has more than one million creditors." By the end of March, FTX's customers in Vietnam and many parts of the world simultaneously received emails confirming the balance of their assets before the exchange went bankrupt and would refund their money after recovering their debts.

On November 11, 2022, FTX declared bankruptcy after reports of financial vulnerabilities were published. Before its collapse, FTX was once valued at $32 billion, was the third largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world and had more than a million users. Sam Bankman-Fried currently faces eight counts, mostly related to fraud and financial conspiracies, with a maximum sentence of life in prison. He is currently out on bail with $250 million bail.