FTX top engineer testifies Bankman-Fried spent $1.13 billion on celebrities and sponsorships
Summary
Nishad Singh, FTXs former director of engineering, told jurors on Monday that Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the failed crypto exchange, spent huge sums of money on everything from real estate and venture investments to campaign donations and celebrity endorsements. How Bankman-Fried, 31, spent FTX money is a critical piece of the prosecutions case because the bulk of the alleged fraud revolves around what happened to billions of dollars of customer funds that were supposed to be invested in crypto and held in client accounts but later disappeared. Singh, who grew up in the Bay Area, testified that he met the defendant during his sophomore or junior year of high school, through Bankman-Frieds younger brother, Gabe. In mid-2022, Singh said he first learned of the hole in the balance sheet and the massive amounts of money Bankman-Fried had spent on real estate, startup investments speculative bets and political donations. That followed a K5 dinner Bankman-Fried attended alongside Hillary Clinton, Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Kris and Kylie Jenner.