FTX splurged on cartoon, book about humans and ‘Pineapple House,’ alleges CEO

June 27, 2023 Alex Rustok

Former FTX executives allegedly splurged millions on funding niche projects completely unrelated to crypto or Web3, including a uniquely named $1.8 million “Pineapple house.”

A June 26 report from FTX restructuring chief and CEO John Ray laid out the uses of the allegedly misappropriated customer funds.

According to the report, this included “charitable” donations made by the exchange’s co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried and other former executives under the non-profit FTX Foundation.

Detailed were $700,000 worth of FTX Foundation “grants,” $400,000 of which were given to “an entity that posted animated videos on YouTube related to ‘rationalist and [Effective Altruism] material,” the report alleged.

Another $300,000 grant was given to an individual to “[w]rite a book about how to figure out what humans’ utility function is (are).”

Highlighted excerpt of Ray’s report detailing the projects allegedly funded using FTX customer funds. Source: Kroll

Ray alleged these “grants” used FTX customer funds commingled in various bank accounts controlled by FTX, Alameda Research and various other entities.

The report also lists a $1.8 million property called “Pineapple House” among FTX’s $243 million Bahamian real estate portfolio — which was all allegedly purchased using customer funds.

International broker Sotheby’s lists a similarly named property located in The Bahamas although it’s unknown if it is the same Pineapple House listed in the report.

Related: Tokenized FTX claim is used as collateral for a loan

Other uses of the alleged commingled customer funds detailed by Ray included around $20 million sent to the non-profit organization Guarding Against Pandemics, Inc and “related entities.”

As the name suggests, Guarding Against Pandemics advocates for investments to prevent pandemics such as COVID-19 as per its website.

According to Ray, it “worked closely” with the similarly named political action committee Guarding Against Pandemics PAC run by Gabe Bankman-Fried — the younger brother of Sam Bankman-Fried.

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