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FTX Internal Staff Statement: Loss of life savings, expansion as false news, and previously offered 50% discounted FTX investment opportunities

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FTX Internal Staff Statement: Loss of life savings, expansion as false news, and previously offered 50% discounted FTX investment opportunities

Autism Capital released a statement early this morning reportedly made by two internal FTX employees. The statement mentioned that most FTX employees had the opportunity to invest in FTX at a 50% discount, but many lost significant assets as a result. This also contradicts SBF's previous statements about FTX expansion. However, there are discrepancies in the statement, summarized as follows.

FTX Employees Lose Life Savings

"Sam has destroyed the lives of many current and former employees, and everyone at FTX is shocked and disappointed. Employees continued to fight for Sam until they discovered what happened on Twitter, only Sam's own inner circle knows how far things have progressed."

Internal employees stated that SBF has claimed internally and externally that FTX is like a trusted bank, where many people have their life savings. Employee bonuses typically include FTT and FTX stocks, and employees also mostly keep these funds in FTX, while actively developing products to automatically transfer funds to FTX.

In 2021, FTX repurchased shares from Binance, and SBF internally claimed this to be a huge victory. Following the event, SBF gave employees the first opportunity to invest in FTX at a 50% discount, with a limit of $250,000, meaning investing $250,000 would get you a $500,000 stake.

Regarding this investment opportunity, two internal employees had differing opinions, one stated that FTX executives heavily promoted this opportunity as a chance to make a 100% return overnight and grow to 4-5 times in a few years, while another claimed there was no internal push to sell to employees.

However, many believed in SBF and invested beyond what they should have, thinking it was a safe bet, but ended up losing their life savings and are concerned that this money has been sent to Alameda.

FTX's Claim of Expansion Not True

Internal employees also discussed the news of FTX's expansion, on June 6th, Sam stated on CNBC that while other companies were laying off employees, FTX was hiring more.

However, the reality was that the next day, SBF dismissed over 20 people, not directly firing them, but stating internally on Slack that these individuals did not fit the company culture.

In January of this year, FTX's Engineering Director Nishad Singh's girlfriend, Claire, became roommates with SBF in the Bahamas for several months before joining FTX, quickly becoming the HR manager with the authority to dismiss those she deemed unfit for the company culture.

Who Really Knows the Severity of the Situation?

Regarding the entire event, internal employees stated that only the core inner circle is aware of the sequence of events, which includes:

  1. SBF
  2. Alameda CEO Caroline Ellkison
  3. Engineering Director Nishad Singh
  4. FTX CTO Gary Wang

Other executives either found out about the situation before it was made public or were kept in the dark like other employees.