Just when you thought you read everything about the SBF and the FTX debacle, there’s more. A recent leaked letter to the FTX management team from a former employee tasked with scouting and recruiting companies to acquire and invest in, has revealed that staff had growing concerns about FTX’s insolvency which were ignored.
The letter comes from an anonymous employee using the burner email “ftxtruth@gmail.com”.
Multiple sources close to FTX have neither confirmed nor denied the allegations or validity of the letter but if it is real, it means that there is evidence of FTX continuing to mislead consumers and stakeholders right up to and past the point of publicly declaring bankruptcy.
In one part of the clearly emotional letter, the former FTX employee goes on to say “SBF has frequently referred to the FTX team, partners and allies as a family with everyone contributing to the altruistic dream of making the world a better place…”
Though it seems there were multiple warning signs stated by the employee, the FTX leadership chose to continue forward with business as usual as opposed to changing course.
The former FTX employee refers to their responsibility as “prospecting for acquisition and investment targets to assist in the network growth of FTX” and that they had to resign due to “Several prospects including our front runners, ThirdWeb and Funky asked us questions we were unable to answer accurately and rejected us outright.” and their concern for their personal reputation.
When asked for a comment there was no response regarding the alleged acquisition offer from ThirdWeb however Jonathan Calmus, a Funky co-founder issued the following statement.
“Funky has not now or ever entertained an investment or acquisition from FTX. We get approached by investors constantly and currently it does not make sense for us to take on new capital partners. Our values and company structure don’t align with FTX at all and we simply do not currently have a funding round on our roadmap. We set out to build a product that delivers on value and solves real problems prior to raising money. Web3 projects that use Funky have seen massive upticks in community engagement and growth and many projects are achieving 14% conversion rates of user sign ups to minting or purchasing on OpenSea. We’re actively working towards consumer protection and against the Web3 hype machine. FTX represents everything we are not.”
The last few weeks have been a rollercoaster with the FTX story especially considering how many major celebrities have backed FTX very publically including the now ironic Super Bowl ad starring Larry David downplaying the exchange as a means of saying “don’t miss out”.
As a final note, it is interesting that the former FTX employee lets management know that they will respect the famously aggressive FTX NDAs and confidentiality clauses.
It is hard to ignore the ongoing allegations that showcase SBF, the FTX and Alameda executives as being willing participants in market manipulation, deception and fraud.
What is clear is that there is a purge happening in crypto and financial markets that is revealing the reality that “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is”.