Sources: Ex-FTX exec's charitable foundation rakes in millions from FTT sale

According to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, former FTX executive Ruairi Donnelly helped run a charitable foundation while working at FTX, which aims to promote research on effective altruism and artificial intelligence. FTX offered Ruairi Donnelly the right to buy FTT for 5 cents before listing FTT. Lawyer Ruairi Donnelly stated that Ruairi Donnelly converted $562,000 of his salary into FTT at that time, equivalent to 11.2 million FTTs. At the request of Ruairi Donnelly, FTX then gave the tokens as a grant to Polaris Ventures, a Swiss charity he co-founded, according to the foundation’s financial statements. The foundation made millions of dollars selling FTT after it began trading publicly at $1 in 2019 and 2020, according to people familiar with the matter and the foundation's financial statements. Jason PW Halperin, an attorney for Ruairi Donnelly, said the FTT received by Polaris was unpaid wages from its clients and did not belong to the exchange. Polaris currently has about $150 million in assets, with about $30 million of that stranded on FTX. According to people familiar with the matter, Ruairi Donnelly is looking to sell Polaris’ trading account at FTX, thereby exiting the FTX position.