Quick Take
- FTX deals with the Miami Heat, Steph Curry, Kevin O’Leary and other celebrities climbed to $1.3 billion, former FTX engineering director Nishad Singh said in court Monday.
- Singh had also apparently asked Sam Bankman-Fried to use his personal money and not FTX money for a deal with “super networkers” Michael Kives and Bryan Baum and their company K5 Global.
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FTX’s former engineering director Nishad Singh read out a list of deals from a spreadsheet in court at Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial on Monday that showed funds given to celebrities and influencers climbed well over $1 billion, Inner City Press reported.
Such deals included the $135 million FTX spent to rename a famous entertainment complex in Miami to the FTX Arena (now Kaseya Center). Also on the list were $28 million paid to basketball player Steph Curry, $14 million to Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary and undisclosed amounts to football quarterback Tom Brady, model Gisele Bundchen and actor Larry David.
These deals amassed to $1.3 billion, Singh was reported as saying.
Singh also touched on a conversation he had with Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang concerning an investment in Michael Kive’s and Bryan Baum’s company K5 Global.
‘Sam’s money’
“Sam sent Gary and me a term sheet to give millions in bonus to Michael Kives and Bryan Baum, and a billion investment in their VC firm,” Singh reportedly said. “I asked that it be done with Sam’s money and not FTX’s money.”
Bankman-Friend entered a hasty deal with Kives and Baum, known as “super networkers,” for $700 million, The Block previously reported.
