Defunct crypto exchange FTX and its founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) donated millions to charities. Now the firm’s new management is trying to recover the donations, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Jan. 8.
John. J. Ray, currently heading FTX management, has said that it has been challenging to figure out the firm’s total assets and liabilities and even how many bank accounts it had.
Federal prosecutors and regulators allege that SBF, FTX, and its affiliates, which include defunct hedge fund Alameda Research, stole user funds and poured billions of dollars into risky bets that did not pan out. FTX and its affiliates filed for bankruptcy in November 2022.
SBF pled ‘not guilty’ to multiple counts of fraud earlier this week, and his criminal trial is set for October 2023. A spokesperson for SBF told WSJ that charitable donations were made with trading profits, not user funds.
FTX’s charitable division Future Fund had doled out over $160 million to more than 110 non-profits as of September 2022. According to a prior version of the now-defunct website of Future Fund, the donations were granted to biotech startups and university researchers working on Covid-19 vaccines and pandemic preparedness, programs providing online resources and mentoring to STEM students in rural India and China, and non-profits developing solar panels.
Even with the crypto bear market in full swing through 2022, Future fund pledged $3.6 million to AVECRIS to develop a genetic vaccine…
