Singapore’s Temasek Explains Its Due Diligence Following FTX Losses

After Singapore’s state-owned investor Temasek wrote off its $275 million stake in now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, some of the country’s legislators are reportedly questioning the organization’s due diligence.

Both Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong have fielded questions from members of parliament about Temasek and about retailer investors’ losses in FTX, Bloomberg reported Monday (Nov. 28).

In a statement posted on its website Nov. 17 and updated Saturday (Nov. 26), Temasek said it did the same due diligence with FTX that it does with other, similar investments, including regulatory and licensing due diligence as well as reviews of the firm’s audited financial statements and cybersecurity.

“During this process, we enquired about the relationship, preferential treatment and separation between Alameda and FTX, and were given appropriate confirmations that were contractually binding,” the statement said.

As PYMNTS reported Nov. 18, FTX’s complicated and compromised relationship with Alameda Research — its sister trading firm — is at the heart of the crypto exchange’s implosion.

Following the crash of the exchange’s worth from $32 billion to zero in the span of a few days, leading venture capital firm Sequoia wrote down the entire value of its $214 million stake in FTX and SoftBank indicated that expects a loss of $100 million on its investment in FTX, Bloomberg reported Nov. 16.

The report from Singapore comes a day after the chief prosecutor of the Bahamas — the home country of FTX — said in a video message that the crypto exchange remains under “active investigation” and that the Securities Commission of the Bahamas had moved “swiftly” by suspending FTX Digital Markets’ license and naming provisional liquidators.

On the same day, Turkey joined the list of countries investigating FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. While authorities in Turkey were already looking into FTX’s local arm in the wake of the company’s collapse, the country’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board, also known as MASAK, is now investigating Bankman-Fried.

For all PYMNTS crypto coverage, subscribe to the daily Crypto Newsletter.