- Singaporean Temasek Holdings will cut the pay of its executives responsible for the failed $275 million FTX investment.
- Temasek’s only crypto investment was in FTX.
Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, Temasek Holdings has cut the wages of the employees responsible for the failed $275 million investment in the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.
Lim Boon Heng, Chairman of Temasek Holdings, has a rack on May 29, confirming that FTX’s fraudulent activities were “deliberately hidden” from investors, including Temasek.
While there was no evidence of wrongdoing by the Temasek investment team, the investment team and senior management, who are ultimately responsible for investment decisions, have accepted collective responsibility.
As a result of this poor investment decision, Temasek has decided to lower their remuneration. The percentage that was reduced was not specified.
Failed FTX investments damage the fund’s reputation
On November 17, 2022, Temasek Holdings wrote down his entire investment in FTX days before the crypto exchange failed. As of November 2022, Temasek had invested $210 million in FTX International and $65 million in FTX. This total investment accounted for 0.09% of the company’s net portfolio value of $293.5 billion over the prior year.
At the time, Temasek claimed it spent eight months on FTX due diligence, studying its audited financial statements, analyzing regulatory risks and cybersecurity threats.
However, in December 2022, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, said that Temasek’s losses had damaged the fund’s reputation.
He said:
“The fact that other leading international institutional investors such as BlackRock and Sequoia Capital have also invested in FTX does not detract from this.”
According to before Forbes, Temasek was once the second-largest outside investor in Sam Bankman-Fried’s company, acquiring 7 million shares. However, after the crypto exchange crashed, the Singapore fund had to answer for their investment disaster. Temasek stated that it is aiming to refine its investment rating system according to FTX, especially for fast emerging companies.
FTX was the only investment Temasek had in a crypto venture.
Temasek stressed that it does not intend to invest in cryptocurrencies and will be cautious when reviewing new blockchain projects.
