Bankruptcy lawyers said Alameda, FTX’s sister exchange co-founded by FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, “bought planes, houses, threw parties, made political donations” with a US$65 billion line of credit at FTX.
The vast sums are hard to visualise, but it was partly thanks to this spending that customers have been left out of pocket.
After CoinDesk reported on the close ties between Alameda and FTX, customers rushed to withdraw their deposits, but the crypto exchange didn’t have the funds to cover them.
From DoorDash and Margaritaville to lavish penthouses and commercials, here are the wildest expenses to be revealed in FTX’s bankruptcy case.
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Bahamas property: US$256.3 million
Court documents filed last December showed that FTX owns 35 properties in the Bahamas, where its head office was based, to the tune of US$256.3 million.
That included 15 multimillion-dollar condos at the Albany Resort, where Bankman-Fried lived in a US$30 million penthouse until his arrest.
The luxury oceanside community has its own marina and a golf course, which has hosted the PGA Tour.
Bahamian officials have been trying to claim back the properties since the crypto exchange went bankrupt, saying that FTX Property Holding Ltd. had no business dealings besides holding real estate in the Caribbean nation.
Luxury hotel stays: US$15 million
In just nine months, FTX spent US$15.4 million on luxury hotels and accommodation in the Bahamas, according to court documents.
The largest chunk of that sum, around US$5.8 million, was spent at the Albany Hotel. According to Fortune, accommodation at the resort can cost as much as US$60,000 per night in high season.
Meanwhile, US$3.6 million went to the Grand Hyatt, a four-star hotel where the cheapest room costs US$370 a night. The company also spent US$800,000 at the five-star Rosewood, where one night costs at least US$1,100.Meet Taylor Swift’s new romance, controversial The 1975 frontman Matty Healy
Shaquille O’Neal sponsorship: US$2.5 million
Shaquille O’Neal starred in an FTX commercial last June, but after its bankruptcy said he was “just a paid spokesperson” and doesn’t believe in crypto.
Forbes reported that lawyers were struggling to find the 2.16-metre (7-foot-1-inch) NBA hall-of-famer to serve documents for a lawsuit in relation to the advertisement, after disappearing for four weeks.
But the former Los Angeles Laker resurfaced on March 20, posting a picture in a hospital bed after a hip replacement.
Court filings show that Shaq’s company was paid US$2.5 million by FTX US.
John Samuel Trabucco’s yacht: US$2.5 million
Before stepping down as Alameda co-CEO last August, John Samuel Trabucco bought property worth US$10 million in cash, as well as a 52-foot yacht that he called “Soak My Deck”, per Protos.
Court documents filed in March show he transferred US$2.5 million from Alameda to American Yacht Group in March 2022, with the cited reason “for the benefit of John Samuel Trabucco”.
A little over a month after his departure from the company, Trabucco tweeted: “Why are journalists so excited to make my stepping down about something other than a desire to go fast over the nice water.”
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Margaritaville: US$600,000
In November, Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville beach resort in the Bahamas was seeking just over US$55,000 from Alameda.
But documents filed earlier in March show that the crypto trading firm actually spent more than 10 times that amount. The oceanside resort named after the singer’s hit single is now claiming almost US$600,000.
Margaritaville staff previously told Bloomberg that the company had around 20 suites for staff, and a shuttle bus took them to the office on the other side of New Providence island.
Private planes for Amazon packages: over US$500,000
Former FTX employees told the Financial Times that the crypto exchange made a deal with an air carrier to fly all their Amazon orders over from a Miami depot.
The 290km (180-mile) flights were apparently necessary because executives realised Amazon didn’t deliver to the Bahamas after moving FTX’s head office there from Hong Kong in 2021.
It isn’t entirely clear just how much this cost the company, but court filings show that between January and September 2022, US$3.9 million was spent on flights, plus over US$500,000 for “postage and delivery”.
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DoorDash: US$400,000
In just a matter of months, FTX spent around US$360,000 on DoorDash. Bankruptcy court filings show two bills were paid in May and July 2022, but the food delivery company is also seeking US$46,000 from Alameda.
Former employees told the Financial Times that FTX US gave employees US$200 of DoorDash food credits a day.
The app’s most expensive meal available for delivery to FTX’s Berkeley, California office was a US$59 New York strip steak and lobster from Japanese restaurant Hana. That means that in theory every employee could have had three such meals a day, charged to the company.
DoorDash confirmed that FTX US was a customer of “DoorDash for Work, our employee benefit product”.
Executive payouts: US$3.2 billion
The most eye-watering sum of them all is the total amount paid from company coffers to the accounts of FTX and Alameda executives – US$3.2 billion.
Another US$587 million went to Nishad Singh, FTX’s former director of engineering, and US$246 million went to Zixiao “Gary” Wang, Bankman-Fried’s co-founder.
Then there was a further US$87 million to Ryan Salame, FTX’s co-CEO, and US$25 million to Trabucco – while Alameda co-CEO Caroline Ellison took home US$6 million.
Salame and Singh donated millions of dollars to politicians ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, but a criminal indictment unsealed last month said that those donations were actually Bankman-Fried’s doing.
He didn’t want to be known as partisan, so he instructed the two executives instead to donate money to certain candidates and political organizations, prosecutors wrote in the filing.
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