FTX said its founder Sam Bankman-Fried was a "profligate patron" who showered Michael Kives, his firm K5 Global, and K5 co-founder Bryan Baum with cash as part of an ongoing scheme to fraudulently use company assets for personal gain, according to a complaint filed in Wilmington, Delaware, bankruptcy court.
Bankman-Fried described Kives, who served as an aide to Clinton when she was a Democratic U.S. senator from New York, and who worked as a Hollywood agent for clients including actor and former Republican California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and singer Katy Perry, as "probably, the most connected person I've ever met," and "a one-stop shop" for political relationships and celebrity partnerships, according to the complaint.
Bankman-Fried authorized investments in K5 projects that enriched Kives and Baum with no payoff for FTX or its customers, who were footing the bill, FTX alleged.