By Open letter from Jeff Ho who sent the below text to Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong via email
I note in today’s Straits Times article, “Temasek to write down US$275 million in FTX, says belief in Bankman-Fried appears to be ‘misplaced’ (17 November 2022)” that Temasek participated in only 2 rounds of FTX’s fundraising, in October 2021 and January 2022 – “These investments were carried out across two funding rounds from October 2021 to January 2022.”
However, in another Straits Times article, “Crypto exchange FTX raises $566m in funding round co-led by Temasek (22 October 2021)”, mentioned Temasek also participated in the earlier July 2021 Series B round. (refer attached article links).
If indeed Temasek only participated in two rounds (not three), why didn’t the Ministry of Finance/government POFMA The Straits Times (and other news agencies/websites) for the erroneous facts/fake news?
I think the wrong facts have to be earnestly pursued for correction/POFMA since the July 2021 investment round would have been made under then-CEO, Mdm Ho Ching’s watch, before she stepped down on 1 October 2021.
Crypto exchange FTX raises $566m in funding round co-led by Temasek – 22 October 2021
“The financing, led by investors including Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, Singapore investment company Temasek and Tiger Global, is a continuation of an earlier Series B funding round from July, when the two-year-old start-up raised US$1 billion from SoftBank, Temasek and other investors at a valuation of US$18 billion.”
Crypto exchange FTX raises $420 million from 69 investors, in meme funding round – 22 Oct 2021
“The investment is a top-up to FTX’s series B financing round in July, in which it raised $900 million at an $18 billion valuation. FTX said it also scored an additional $100 million from Temasek which was not disclosed at the time.”
Singapore’s Temasek holds stake in FTX, a target of Binance takeover – 9 November 2022
“Temasek invested in FTX in the Series B, Series B extension and Series C funding round. FTX raised US$1 billion, US$420 million and US$400 million in the three rounds.”