It has been claimed that Polaris Ventures, a charity founded by Ruairi Donnelly, a former head of staff at both FTX and Alameda, wants to get access to around $150 million in profits made through the selling of employee tokens by the insolvent exchange.
According to an article that was published in the Wall Street Journal on February 14, Donnelly was paid an annual salary of around $562,000 while he was employed by FTX. This pay was converted into FTX Token (FTT) at a rate that was not made accessible to the general public, which was $0.05. Reportedly, the former CEO “donated” the tokens to Polaris Ventures, which then proceeded to sell them for a price of $1 once public trading commenced in 2019 and 2020, resulting in the former executive receiving millions of dollars.
In November, FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which was also the moment when numerous wallets and cash associated with the exchange were confiscated by authorities or otherwise blocked for the duration of the legal process. It has been alleged that Donnelly is looking to pay out the $150 million in the midst of public criticism of FTX and Alameda and their previous CEOs.
It has been claimed that Donnelly’s legal team said that the charity’s FTT tokens “were not FTX’s finances,” implying that they are not susceptible to claims brought forward by third parties. On December 19, the debtors for the exchange said that they would “make arrangements for the restitution” of monies provided to charitable organizations or political campaigns. They also proposed taking legal action to retrieve payments with interest should any organization refuse to pay them back.
During the process of FTX filing for bankruptcy in the United States, many agencies have declared that they would be conducting investigations into charity groups. Due to the fact that FTX is a “major sponsor” of Effective Ventures, the Charity Commission for England and Wales said in January that it has initiated an investigation into the organization.
This article has been updated to reflect revisions that were made to a story in the Wall Street Journal about the usage of the term “insider.” The modification was made on February 15 at 3:01 AM.
According to reports, Ruairi Donnelly was able to make a profit by purchasing FTT tokens at a discounted rate and then reselling them at a higher one.