List of FTX backers expands to include Kraft Group, other family offices
Summary
- FTX disclosed affiliates of Kraft Group, entertainment giant Endeavor and several family investment offices as equity holders
FTX raised equity capital before its collapse from Robert Kraft‘s Kraft Group and entertainment giant Endeavor Group Holdings Inc., among other newly-identified backers who now face the loss of their investments in the once-highflying exchange.
The crypto firm’s chapter 11 administrators disclosed a new roster of its financial backers that listed affiliates of Kraft Group and entertainment giant Endeavor as holding common and preferred stock. FTX also disclosed that it raised capital from affiliates of investment offices including Daniel Och‘s Willoughby Capital LLC and Blue Pool Capital, a Hong-Kong office backed by Alibaba Group co-founder Joseph Tsai, according to the shareholder list, filed in bankruptcy court on Tuesday.
Marquee investors from the U.S. and around the world poured roughly $1.8 billion into FTX with few strings attached, valuing the firm at $32 billion at its peak. Equity holders are likely to be wiped out now that FTX has filed chapter 11. Customers are facing big losses and generally must be paid ahead of stockholders.
Representatives of Kraft Group, Endeavor, Willoughby Capital and Blue Pool Capital didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
Many of FTX’s backers were already publicly known. The exchange’s swift downfall hit venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital, which apologized to its investors for the misstep, and other FTX backers including the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, SoftBank Group Corp., Dan Loeb‘s Third Point LLC, Tiger Global, a venture-capital arm of Samsung Electronics Co. and Singapore’s investment company Temasek Holdings.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly concealed from those investors that the company was diverting customer funds to support his crypto hedge fund, buy real estate and make political donations, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which sued him after the firm went under. Mr. Bankman-Fried also faces federal criminal charges related to FTX and has pleaded not guilty.
In addition to Silicon Valley and Wall Street, FTX had backing from celebrities. Football star Tom Brady and his then-wife, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, became FTX ambassadors in 2021 and also took equity stakes.
Many of the crypto exchange’s executives and employees also put money into FTX.
The names of dozens of FTX shareholders are redacted from the list filed Tuesday because they were also customers of the exchange. FTX has argued that it should be able to redact its users’ identities from its public filings, even though bankruptcy rules normally require transparency into a company’s creditors.
The bankruptcy judge overseeing the FTX case is scheduled to consider on Wednesday if FTX can keep its customers’ names under seal. Justice Department lawyers and media organizations including The Wall Street Journal have filed court papers opposing the company’s request.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text
