Ex-FTX Foundation employee pursues unpaid $275k bonus

Ross Rheingans-Yoo, an FTX charity wing employee recruited by co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, is seeking the remaining $275,000 of his alleged 2022 salary bonus.

The attorneys for Ross Rheingans-Yoo stated in a legal document filed on Nov. 13 that FTX had only disbursed $375,000 of his entitled $650,000 bonus. They argue that the remaining amount was still owed when the cryptocurrency exchange went bankrupt in November 2022.

This latest legal move is a response to FTX’s objection filed on Oct. 30.

Documents shared by Rheingans-Yoo, including a Google Doc from FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, outlined his employment terms at the FTX Foundation, with a base salary of $100,000.

Rheingans-Yoo maintains that he was not part of Bankman-Fried’s close circle and was unaware of any misappropriation of customer funds at FTX.

His legal team stated, “Rheingans-Yoo was a faithful employee who found himself in a mess he did not create.”

Beyond the bonus, Rheingans-Yoo also claims entitlement to an additional $650,000 for charitable donations, a prepetition salary payment of approximately $5,700, and a post-petition salary of at least $62,800.

FTX, however, maintains that Rheingans-Yoo has already been fully compensated for his bonus, noting that he chose to receive part of the award through options in the firm’s corporate affiliates before the bankruptcy. Rheingans-Yoo disputes this claim.

The decision on Rheingans-Yoo’s bonus now rests with a Delaware bankruptcy judge overseeing FTX’s Chapter 11 proceedings.

FTX has taken legal action against Rheingans-Yoo’s Latona Biosciences Group, Bankman-Fried, and several other defendants in a related case.

The lawsuit, filed in July, seeks the return of $71.6 million in investments and donations allegedly made to various life science companies.

FTX alleges these transactions were to the personal benefit of Rheingans-Yoo and Bankman-Fried without any return for FTX and Alameda Research.

Rheingans-Yoo defends his work at Latona, asserting it was aimed at producing “positive results for society” through careful analysis and due diligence of potential recipients.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, former FTX executives, including Can Sun, the former general counsel and a key witness against Bankman-Fried, have launched a new crypto platform named Backpack.

Based in Dubai and operated by Trek Labs, Backpack aims to offer a more secure and transparent trading model, drawing lessons from FTX’s collapse.