Nishad Singh took the stand in Manhattan federal court during the criminal trial of Sam Bankamn-Fried. He said he often contacted Bankman-Fried to express his concerns about the company’s excessive spending.
The bulk of Bankman-Fried’s alleged fraud involved the disappearance of billions of dollars of client funds that were supposed to be invested in cryptocurrency and held in their accounts. Bankman-Fried faces seven criminal charges related to the collapse of FTX and Alameda Research, including wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering. Bankman-Fried himself does not plead guilty.
A table of FTX’s investments made in 2021 was presented in court. These included $499 million invested in startup Anthropic and $200 million in investment company K5. Singh said the costs of the K5 are the biggest concern. He said he told Bankman-Fried he was concerned that the K5 investment could “provide any profit.” He also asked Bankman-Fried whether the investments were made from his personal money or using FTX funds. Documents showed the funding came from Alameda.
According to another spreadsheet of FTX spending presented to the jury, $205 million was spent on the FTX Arena in Miami, $150 million went to Major League Baseball, $28.5 million went to Stephen Curry, and another $50 million went to Tom Brady. Brady and Giselle Bundchen. Singh admitted that even after he learned that clients’ money was involved in FTX’s expenses, he still gave the green light for the transactions. When he expressed concerns about wasteful spending to Bankman-Fried, he often received no response, he said.
Recently, the former head of FTX asked a federal judge to allow him to take medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). He claims that otherwise he would not be able to focus on the claim. The day before, the temporary administration of FTX filed a lawsuit against Bankman-Fried’s parents demanding the return of “millions of dollars” to investors.
Source: Bits
I am an experienced journalist, writer, and editor with a passion for finance and business news. I have been working in the journalism field for over 6 years, covering a variety of topics from finance to technology. As an author at World Stock Market, I specialize in finance business-related topics.
