The Metropolitan Museum of Art has agreed to return hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations it received from FTX under the leadership of founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
The museum, located on the east end of New York City’s Central Park, is recognized as one of the nation’s leading art museums and joins the growing list of organizations and individuals seeking to forgo FTX’s tainted money.
If a settlement with the FTX Debtors is approved, the famed Met will ultimately return $550,000, according to court documents filed Friday.
“The Met wishes to return the donations to the FTX Debtors,” one motion reads, adding that the move is the result of “good faith remote negotiations” on behalf of both parties involved.
The donations were made by West Realm Shires Services, the company that operated FTX.US, an FTX-branded exchange aimed at US clients that collapsed along with its international counterpart in November last year.
West Realm Shires Services initially donated $300,000 to the Met in March of last year, before the digital asset industry plunged into crypto winter, and followed that up with an additional $250,000 donation in May, according to court documents.
The Met did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.
Since the FTX implosion, Bankman-Fried has been accused of a series of financial crimes, ranging from fraud to money laundering, of which there have been found not guilty. He is accused of embezzling billions of dollars in client funds to buy private real estate, donating to political campaigns and boosting his Alameda Research hedge fund with money from FTX clients.
A lot of politicians said that would return funds linked to FTX or pledged to donate them back soon after the Bankman-Fried business empire fell apart. And politicians continue to step up: Lori Chavez DeRemer recently returned a contribution of $1,000, for example, according to Willamette Week.
Bankman-Fried cultivated an image as a cryptocurrency prodigy in part due to his philanthropic efforts and his promotion of “effective altruism,” a philosophical and social movement aimed at making a positive impact in the world.
Bankman-Fried also served on the board of directors of the FTX Foundation, a cryptocurrency industry charity that donated to organizations like the Center for Alignment Research, a nonprofit focused on artificial intelligence.
When the Alignment Research Center said that plans to return the $1.25 million he received from the charity as a grant, he said the “money belongs morally (if not legally) to FTX’s customers or creditors” and that it was a “particularly easy decision.”
The University of Toronto has taken steps to return nearly $500,000 it received from FTX, according to The Logic. Y ProPublicathe nonprofit news organization, said that would return $1.6 million he received as part of a three-year, $5 million Building a Stronger Future grant, a family foundation run by Bankman-Fried and his brother Gabe.
Friday’s deal comes as FTX seeks to recover whatever funding it can under its new CEO John Ray III, who has been tasked with untangling FTX’s books, recovering missing funds and maximizing shareholder returns since divestiture proceedings began. exchange bankruptcy.
FTX debtors said in December that numerous recipients of payments and contributions had asked for instructions to return the funds. The statement also warned that FTX debtors will use legal means to recover funds that are not returned voluntarily.
In a update Filed in April, FTX said it has been able to recover $6.2 billion in assets under Ray. And while he waits for some form of relief in the company’s bankruptcy proceedings, Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial is scheduled for October.
2023-06-05 20:53:23
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