The disgraced cryptocurrency magnate Sam Bankman-Fried, who headquartered the FTX exchange, had deliberate to buy the small Pacific island state of Nauru in case the world got here to an end, in accordance to a new lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday through FTX in opposition to its 31-year-old founder and three different former executives, and in search of $1bn, covered a memo created with the aid of Bankman-Fried’s youthful brother Gabriel and an FTX Foundation executive. The memo specified plans to purchase Nauru.
The diagram used to be to “purchase the sovereign kingdom of Nauru in order to assemble a ‘bunker/shelter’ that would be used for ‘some tournament the place 50-99.99% of humans die make sure that most EAs survive’” the memo said, referring to “effective altruism”, a philosophical and social motion championed by way of Bankman-Fried that tries to maximize the affect of charitable giving.
The memo additionally cited plans to boost “sensible law round human genetic enhancement, and construct a lab there”. It additionally stated “probably there are different matters it’s beneficial to do with a sovereign country, too”.
Nauru is a sovereign nation in Micronesia, and has an region of 21 sq km and a populace of about 12,500 people, making it the third-smallest usa in the world. In the 1990s, Nauru grew to be a money-laundering haven to the likes of the Russian mafia and al-Qaida by using promoting a variety of banking licenses and diplomatic passports.
In 1998, an estimated $70bn in Russian mafia cash used to be wired via Nauru’s banks. Four years later, the US treasury distinctive the us of a as a money-laundering state.
Thursday’s lawsuit comes as Bankman-Fried’s successor, John Ray, seeks to recoup damages brought on by using alleged transgressions through Bankman-Fried and different former executives.
“This motion seeks to get better damages induced by means of defendants’ breaches of their fiduciary responsibilities and to keep away from and get better illegal transfers of thousands of tens of millions of bucks that defendants misappropriated from the estates of … debtors and debtors-in-possession,” the lawsuit said.
In December, Bankman-Fried used to be arrested in the Bahamas over allegations he had stolen consumer funds. He was once later extradited to the US and pleaded no longer responsible to fees that he cheated buyers and stole billions of dollars.
Thursday’s lawsuit referred to as the complete ordeal “one of the biggest economic frauds in history”, including that the alleged misconduct of Bankman-Fried and different executives “caused the FTX Group to collapse, to the exquisite detriment of customers, lenders and shareholders”.
On Thursday, prosecutors also requested US district decide Lewis Kaplan to restrict Bankman-Fried’s capability to talk about case important points backyard the court, alleging that Bankman-Fried tried to publicly discredit 28-year-old Caroline Ellison, a authorities witness who used to be as soon as his female friend and former govt of Alameda Research, his crypto-investment company.
According to a courtroom filing, Bankman-Fried tried to sway the jury via sharing Ellison’s non-public writings with a New York Times reporter. On Thursday, the New York Times posted an article that featured ideas Ellison wrote on personal Google documents, along with her doubts about her capability to run Alameda Research and her tumultuous relationship with Bankman-Fried.
Prosecutors wrote: “The defendant’s motive in sharing these materials is plain. Ellison has pleaded responsible to a cooperation settlement and is anticipated to testify at trial that she agreed with the defendant to defraud FTX’s clients and investors, and Alameda’s lenders.
“The defendant is trying to discredit a witness, forged Ellison in a negative light, and boost his protection via the press and outdoor the constraints of the court docket and regulations of evidence: that Ellison used to be a jilted lover who perpetrated these crimes alone.”
