FTX proposes $4M employee bonus plan; intends to sell $45M stake in Sequoia Capital

Bankrupt FTX proposed a retention plan that would pay the exchange’s employees bonuses of up to 94% of their salary, according to a March 8 court filing.

The bonus is capped at $4,027,204 and is designed to cater to employees with “unique and specialized skillsets” that would be difficult to replace and are critical to the firm’s case.

Per the filing, the FTX’s employees who qualify for these bonuses included those with programming knowledge of Python, Rust, Flutter, and NodeJS. Others include employees who know the firm’s administrative duties, accounting and finance processes, etc.

According to the filing, these employees have taken on added responsibilities and workload since FTX’s CEO, John Ray, reduced the exchange’s workforce. In addition, it said the firm’s current cryptocurrency and equity-based compensation programs had had little value since filing for bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, the filing stated that no bonuses would be paid to “insiders” or FTX’s former top executives – Samuel Bankman-Fried, Gary Wang, Nishad Singh, and Caroline Ellison –  and their families. Besides that, no bonuses would be paid to employees engaged in wrongdoing.

FTX wants to sell its interest in Sequoia Capital for $45M

In a further development, FTX’s sister company Alameda Research intends to sell its stake in venture capital firm Sequoia Capital for $45 million to Al Nawwar Investments RSC Limited, according to a March 8 court filing.

According to the filing, Alameda agreed to sell to Al Nawwar because it made a “superior offer and ability to execute the Sale Transaction within a short time frame.”

Al Nawwar is a company incorporated under the Abu Dhabi Global Market laws and reportedly owned by the Abu Dhabi government. The filing noted that the company is also an investor in Sequoia Capital.

The deal is subject to the Delaware bankruptcy judge’s approval and is expected to close by March 31.

Meanwhile, Sequoia was one of FTX’s investors. The venture capital firm was one of the first investment companies to write off its investment in the crypto exchange.

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