FTX Trustees Accuse Sam Bankman-Fried Of Funding A Group With Racist Ties

Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder and former CEO of the failed crypto exchange FTX, is facing allegations of funding a group with racist ties.

As first reported by The Guardian, FTX trustees allege that payments to the group were made with misappropriated funds.

FTX and Lightcone

FTX trustees allege that Sam Bankman-Fried and other company insiders used nearly $5 million of misappropriated funds to help a nonprofit called Lightcone Infrastructure purchase the historic Rose Garden Inn hotel.

The property, now named the Lighthaven Campus, hosts conferences and workshops on the “Tescreal” intellectual movements, encompassing effective altruism, rationalism, and longtermism. 

These movements hold significant sway in Silicon Valley, influencing tech moguls like Sam Altman, Marc Andreessen, and Elon Musk. 

The Guardian reports that over the last year, gatherings at Lighthaven Campus often featured prominent individuals with views linked to scientific racism.

For example, Lighthaven recently hosted the Manifest 2024 conference organized by Manifold Markets. Billed speakers included Substack co-founder Chris Best and AI startup Anthropic’s co-founder Ben Mann.

However, more extreme figures were also present, like Razib Khan, whose New York Times contract was withdrawn due to his affiliations with racist publications, and Stephen Hsu, who resigned from Michigan State University amid accusations of promoting scientific racism. 

FTX Demands Return of Misappropriated Funds

Federal court documents reveal that in the months before the collapse of Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto empire, he and other insiders funneled nearly $5 million to Lightcone. 

This included $1 million as a deposit to purchase the Rose Garden Inn. 

FTX administrators claim that these funds were commingled with money looted from FTX customers, and they are now demanding the return of these funds through bankruptcy court proceedings in Delaware.

Their complaint, filed on May 13, alleges that these funds were fraudulently transferred through Alameda Research. 

Lightcone Infrastructure, incorporated in October 2022, and its director, Oliver Habryka, are now under legal scrutiny for their financial dealings with FTX. Lightcone has said it rejects the claim.

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