FTX wanted to buy a Pacific island nation and build an apocalypse bunker on it, lawsuit says

NEW YORK POST

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX’s nonprofit arm wanted to buy a Pacific island nation and build a bunker on it in preparation for an apocalyptic event, according to a lawsuit filed against disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

The complaint filed in Delaware bankruptcy court on Thursday alleged that Bankman-Fried’s kid brother Gabe wanted to use the FTX Foundation, FTX’s philanthropic branch, to buy Nauru, a tiny, oval-shaped, coral island located about 2,000 miles off the northeastern coast of Australia.

If a catastrophic event were to wipe out more than half of the planet’s population, Gabe appeared to believe that the 8.1-square-mile island could ensure the survival of members of the “effective altruism” movement, which Bankman-Fried publicly paid lip service.

The movement advocates for using evidence and reason to benefit others as much as possible.

Gabe allegedly sent a memo to an FTX Foundation officer describing “a plan to purchase the sovereign nation of Nauru in order to construct a ‘bunker/shelter’ that would be used for ‘some event where 50%-99.99% of people die [to] ensure that most EAs [effective altruists] survive,” according to the court documents.

As of July 1, Nauru has a population of 12,780, according to the World Population Review.

The court documents showed that Gabe said that “probably there are other things it’s useful to do with a sovereign country, too.”

Gabe hasn’t been accused by prosecutors of any wrongdoing in FTX’s implosion.

The lawsuit was filed by FTX against a handful of its executives, including Bankman-Fried, co-founder Gary Wang, engineering director Nishad Singh and Caroline Ellison, the CEO of FTX’s sister company, Alameda Research.

It’s seeking $1 billion in damages, claiming the company’s so-called philanthropic organization was misappropriated by FTX’s bosses.

Thursday’s complaint cites Gabe’s island-bunker dream as just one example of “the FTX Foundation’s projects [which] were frequently misguided and dystopian.”

The suit goes on to bash FTX Foundation “a purported charity that served little purpose other than to enhance the public stature of defendants. It certainly did not advance the business objectives of the FTX Group in any discernible way.”