It has been claimed that Polaris Ventures, a charity founded by Ruairi Donnelly, a former chief of staff at both FTX and Alameda, wants to gain access to around $150 million in profits made through the sale of employee tokens by the insolvent exchange.

According to an article published in the Wall Street Journal on February 14, Donnelly was paid an annual salary of about $562,000 while employed by FTX. This payment was converted into FTX Token (FTT) at a rate that was not available to the general public, which was $0.05. The former CEO reportedly “donated” the tokens to Polaris Ventures, which then proceeded to sell them for a price of $1 once they began public operations in 2019 and 2020, resulting in the former executive receiving millions. of dollars.

In November, FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which was also the time when numerous wallets and cash associated with the exchange were seized or otherwise blocked by authorities for the duration of the legal process. It has been alleged that Donnelly is seeking to pay the $150 million amid public criticism of FTX and Alameda and their former CEOs.

It has been claimed that Donnelly’s legal team said that the charity’s FTT tokens were “not FTX’s finances”, implying that they are not amenable to third-party claims. On December 19, the debtors of the swap said they would “arrange for restitution” of the money given to charities or political campaigns. They also proposed taking legal action to recover interest payments in case any organization refuses to pay them back.

During FTX’s bankruptcy filing process in the United States, many agencies have stated that they would be conducting investigations on charitable groups. Due to the fact that FTX is a “main sponsor” of Effective Ventures, the Charity Commission for England and Wales said in January that it had launched an investigation into the organization.

This article was updated to reflect revisions to a story in the Wall Street Journal about the use of the term “insider trading.” The modification was made on February 15 at 3:01 AM.

Ruairi Donnelly was reportedly able to make a profit by buying FTT tokens at a reduced price and then reselling them at a higher one.