Former FTX Executive Accused of Running a Charity Through Discounted FTT Purchases – Bitcoin News

by James · February 15, 2023

A former head of FTX allegedly made profits for a charity by buying discounted FTX tokens, FTT, before they became available to the public at $0.05 per unit, according to a report citing anonymous sources. Ruairi Donnelly, the former chief of staff at FTX, has been accused of donating tokens to Polaris Ventures, a charity based in Switzerland, which later sold FTT for millions of dollars.

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Anonymous sources claim that Polaris Ventures got most of its wealth from FTT transfer in 2019

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Tuesday, a charity linked to an FTX executive profited by acquiring ftx tokens (FTT) at a discounted price. The charity in question is Polaris Ventures, a Swiss organization that claims to support artificial intelligence (AI) and effective altruism, anonymous sources familiar with the matter told the WSJ.

One specific AI organization that Polaris Ventures supported was the Cooperative AI Foundation, which received $15 million to support its cause and research. WSJ reporter Alexander Saeedy cites anonymous sources who claim that former FTX Chief of Staff Ruairi Donnelly bought FTX tokens (FTT) at a discounted price of $0.05 per unit, which was reportedly the going FTX employee discount at the time.

The sources claim that Donnelly used $562,000 of his own salary to acquire FTT at this price. Saeedy’s report suggests that Donnelly then donated the funds via a grant to Polaris, and that “the foundation made millions of dollars selling tokens after they began trading publicly for $1 in 2019 and 2020, while Mr. Donnelly was still working at FTX.”

Donnelly’s lawyer stated that the FTT in question did not belong to FTX and was intended to pay his client’s unpaid wages. “To be absolutely clear, the FTT that Mr. Donnelly directed to be donated on his behalf to Polaris was not FTX’s funds,” the lawyer said. The lawyer also noted that $30 million of Polaris’ funds were tied up in FTX, and that the foundation is a major creditor in FTX’s bankruptcy case.

Anonymous sources cited in the report further suggest that most of the foundation’s wealth originally came from the FTT transfer in 2019. The same sources concluded that Donnelly is currently trying to sell bankruptcy credits for a fraction of their value.

Tags in this story

AI Research, Alternative Investments, Anonymous Sources, Bankruptcy Case, Charitable Donations, Cooperative AI Foundation, Cryptocurrency, Digital Assets, Digital Currency, Digital Tokens, Employee Discount, Financial Markets, Financial Technology, FTT, FTT Token, ftx, FTX Token, fundraising , Polaris Ventures, Ruairi Donnelly, token sale, unpaid wages, virtual currency

What are your thoughts on the case with Polaris Ventures and the reported FTT deal in 2019? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is the news editor at Bitcoin.com News and a financial technology journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.