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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Technology
Jason Wilson and Ali Winston

Sam Bankman-Fried funded a group with racist ties. FTX wants its $5m back

FTX Bankman Sam Bankman-Fried EA SPORTS Richard Hanania United States Alameda Crypto Manifest
A side-by-side image of Sam Bankman-Fried, a young white man with poofy brown hair, and the outside of a cream, Tudor-style building painted with pink trim.
A new lawsuit alleges that Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX insiders funnelled nearly $5m to the non-profit Lightcone, which used the money to buy a former hotel in Berkeley, California. Lightcone says it rejects the claim. Composite: Reuters, Google Maps

Multiple events hosted at a historic former hotel in Berkeley, California, have brought together people from intellectual movements popular at the highest levels in Silicon Valley while platforming prominent people linked to scientific racism, the Guardian reveals.

But because of alleged financial ties between the non-profit that owns the building – Lightcone Infrastructure (Lightcone) – and jailed crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, the administrators of FTX, Bankman-Fried’s failed crypto exchange, are demanding the return of almost $5m that new court filings allege were used to bankroll the purchase of the property.

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