SBF trial hears testimony that FTX deals with celebrities and influencers climbed to over $1 billion: Inner City Press

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.

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.

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'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. 


Disclaimer: The former CEO and majority shareholder of The Block has disclosed a series of loans from former FTX and Alameda founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

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