From Sequoia Capital to Temasek, Leading VCs Now Face Lawsuit for Facilitating FTX Fraud

Updated: 09 August 2023

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Sequoia Capital, Temasek, Sino Global, Softbank, and others are among the 18 VCs now facing a class-action lawsuit in the US District for the Northern District of California for abetting FTX fraud which extended to multi-billion dollars.

The 160 paged lawsuit filed on August 7 alleged that these VCs had encouraged investors using their “power, influencer, and deep pockets” to invest in FTX, “aiding in abetting” the fraud perpetrated by the now-defunct exchange.

A total of 18 VC firms including Singapore state-backed Temasek, Softbank, and Sequoia Capital were named in a lawsuit for "aiding and abating" FTX fraud. https://t.co/brTM39dzmv

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) August 9, 2023

“Multinational VC defendants are some of the largest venture capitalists in the world and with enormous influence in spurring the development of emerging industries, like crypto, and persuading others to invest in the portfolio companies they advise and nurture,” highlighted the lawsuit.

The lawsuit has alleged that these multinational venture capitalists provided critical funding to SBF’s fraudulent scheme from these positions of power. “Without them pumping billions into FTX’s coffers, SBF could not have launched the venture nor so extensively expanded its reach through aggressive promotion and marketing campaigns legitimizing its brand in public.”, the lawsuit mentions.

VCs Made Numerous Own Deceptive Statements – Lawsuit

Citing claims that Temasek made in November 2022 that it has done an extensive audit and regulatory checks on FTX, the suit reads, “The Multinational CV Defendants also made numerous deceptive and misleading statements of their own about FTX’s operations, business, finances and prospects to induce customers to invest trade, and/or deposit assets with FTX.”

On November 2022, Singapore’s state-owned investment firm Temasek said that they didn’t find any red flags in FTX’s finances despite auditing it for eight months, which it did so before investing $275 million in the cryptocurrency exchange.

This quote was taken from a blog post written on November 17 in which Temasek wrote, “Similar to all investments, we conducted an extensive due diligence process on FTX, which took approximately eight months and from February to October 2021. During this time, we reviewed FTX’s audited financial statements, which showed it to be profitable.”

The blog post then took an apologetic tone where Temasek admits that its belief in the judgment, leadership, and actions of Sam Bankman-Fried was misplaced.

Following the FTX collapse in 2022, Temasek wrote off that investment and slashed compensation for the executives who were responsible for supervising the FTX investment.

Under the section of the lawsuit that highlights the defendant’s role in aiding FTX’s fraud, it has also been stated that these multinational VCs didn’t only provide FTX with funding but also supplied the exchange with hands-on support, partnership, guidance, infrastructure, networks endorsements, promotions, publicity, cover, and “other assistance vital to the fraud.”

FTX Law Firm Also Hit With Another Lawsuit

Reuters have reported that not only eighteen venture capitalists are reeling against the recently filed lawsuit. In another story, Fenwick and West LLP, a legal firm representing FTX, was sued by FTX customers for allegedly aiding fraud through its “legal advice.”

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