FTX executives spent wildly and showered workers with lavish perks such as free food and massages, and Amazon deliveries by private jet in the months before the cryptocurrency site’s catastrophic collapse.
FTX’s headquarters in the Bahamas featured daily catering “in addition to the free groceries, barbershop pop-up and bi-weekly massages” a former employees told the Financial Times.
Workers also enjoyed a “full suite of cars and gas covered for all employees [and] unlimited, full expense covered trips to any office globally,” the ex-employee added.
Since Amazon does not deliver to the Bahamas, FTX reportedly chartered private planes to fly their orders from Miami to the company headquarters. FTX’s US branch was given $200 per day toward DoorDash food delivery.
Former employees expressed shock over the extent of the spending under FTX’s disgraced founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, who has drawn sharp criticism in bankruptcy court for using the company as his “personal fiefdom.”
“[It was] kids leading kids,” one former employee told the FT. “The entire operation was idiotically inefficient, but equally mesmerizing.”
“I had never witnessed so much money in my life. I don’t think anybody had, including SBF,” the employee added, referring to Bankman-Fried’s initials.
Bankman-Fried reportedly declined to comment on the report.
New FTX CEO John Ray III and other stewards of the company’s bankruptcy process have outlined questionable purchases and slipshod accounting practices in various court filings since the company collapsed earlier this month.
One such filing revealed that Alameda Research, FTX’s sister cryptocurrency trading firm, has a $55,319 unpaid tab Margaritaville Beach Resort in the Bahamas. The resort was founded by musician Jimmy Buffett.
FTX attorneys said Bankman-Fried and his associates used company funds to buy up $300 million in luxury real estate in the Bahamas, including several high-end properties in the exclusive Albany community.
Bankman-Fried, his ex-lover Caroline Ellison and a group of other top executives lived and worked together from a ritzy penthouse within the resort.
Ray blasted Bankman-Fried’s lack of corporate governance in another filing, describing the company’s bookkeeping as worse than what he encountered while overseeing disgraced energy firm Enron’s bankruptcy.
FTX attorneys said company executives would often approve expense requests by posting emojis on an internal Slack channel.
One former employee who spoke to the FT said Bankman-Fried and other executives would approve major spending, such as a $135 million naming rights deal on the stadium for the NBA’s Miami Heat, with little regard for return on investment.
“It just kinda went crazy,” the employee said. “If Sam said OK, it was good to go. Regardless of the amount.”
FTX’s spending also included major ad campaigns starring the likes of NFL legend Tom Brady — who also served as a brand ambassador — and a Super Bowl commercial featuring “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Larry David.
Bankman-Fried’s family members were also linked to major purchases.
Guarding Against Pandemics, the nonprofit run by his younger brother, Gabriel Bankman-Fried, purchased a Washington DC townhouse for more than $3 million in April, according to media outlet Puck. The nonprofit was partially funded by Sam Bankman-Fried.
Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried’s parents, Stanford law professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, co-signed the deed for a Bahamas beach house that was intended as a vacation home, Reuters reported. The parents said they intend to return the property following FTX’s downfall.
FTX’s collapse marked a stunning downfall for Bankman-Fried, whose personal fortune was estimated to be nearly $16 billion just a few weeks ago.
In an interview with Axios this week, Bankman-Fried claimed he is down to just $100,000 in his personal bank account.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
