Thiel, Tom Brady, Gisele among list of FTX shareholders disclosed in court

An LLC linked to billionaire Peter Thiel is among a list of FTX equity holders filed by FTX Trading Ltd. and its affiliated debtors as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The famous tech entrepreneur and investor is the latest major name linked to FTX. 

The list, which was filed on Jan. 9, outlines the names of equity holders and the number of shares they hold from a variety of FTX subsidiaries, including West Realm Shires Inc, FTX Trading Inc, Clifton Bay Investments and more.

The list also includes details of the holdings of NFL quarterback Tom Brady, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, American TV personality, investor, and paid FTX spokesperson Kevin O'Leary, and several well-known venture capital and investment firms.

Details of the holdings of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's inner circle are also included in the filing. 

Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel's Rivendell Trust, which is Thiel's family trust, and his venture capital arm Thiel Capital are mentioned in the filing linked to an investment vehicle "2021-015 Investments LLC." The vehicle received 245,000 shares from West Realm Shires Inc. and 57,230 from FTX Trading Ltd.

Requests for comment sent to the Thiel-related addresses were not returned before publication. 

Thiel's investment in FTX was not previously known. It was revealed in November 2022 that the billionaire had invested in collapsed crypto lender BlockFi through Valar Ventures, a venture arm tied to Thiel. BlockFi, which brokered a $680 million deal with FTX US, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following the exchange's collapse.

The list of equity holders is based on information that is currently available to debtors and will be updated as proceedings continue. 

"The Debtors’ investigation continues regarding the individuals and interests listed on the Equity Holders Lists," said the counsel for the debtors and debtors-in-possession.

Notable names

Key players from FTX Ventures are missing from the list. Amy Wu, who was the head of the ventures arm, and Ramnik Arora, who was a partner in the ventures arm and also operated as head of product from FTX, are not mentioned in the unredacted list of names.

Brett Harrison, the former FTX US president, is also not mentioned. Earlier this week, Harrison said he would share information on FTX US "in time."

The document also reveals the shares held by prominent spokespeople for the exchange. Brady, the NFL star, has 1,144,861 shares and model Bundchen has 686,761 shares from the FTX Trading subsidiary. TV personality and investor O'Leary's production company is listed as owning 183,791 shares from two subsidiaries.

The filing also shows significant holdings from investment firm BlackRock across a number of FTX subsidiaries as well as holdings from other publicly known investors such as Coinbase Ventures, Third Point Ventures, Multicoin and Paradigm. 

FTX raised $1.8 billion from more than 90 investors since 2018.

FTX's inner circle

Many names still remain redacted in the publicly available document, with lawyers for the U.S. government as well as other journalism outlets pushing for a more comprehensive public listing of top creditors to the failed crypto empire.

But the new court documents provide some insight into the workings of Bankman-Fried's inner circle revealing the number of shares held by top executives across various subsidiaries.