Former FTX Employee Exposes 'Cult-Like' Work Culture, Excessive Luxury Expenditures

Just days after disgraced ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested by the Bahamian police, a former employee has exposed the toxic work culture and lavish expenditures at the company.

Danielle Cloud opened up about the "cult-like" work culture at FTX on Twitter, and said in the beginning, she was awestruck by all the luxuries the company had to offer. But over time, the strenuous workload and no holiday policy resulted in her seeing the company psychiatrist.

Cloud, who started as a KYC analyst at the FTX U.S. arm in October 2021 and was later promoted to the marketing department, left the company two weeks ago. She compared FTX to the luxury music festival Fyre Festival and the American health tech company Theranos.

"Before joining I had never heard of FTX or SBF. Everyone employed at FTX was obsessed—and I supposed it made sense. The kid was young, the principles were revolutionary, the ideas were golden," she noted.

Talking about the lavish expenditures at the company headquarters in the Bahamas, Cloud said, "I never knew all the things money could buy."

FTX seemingly purchased or leased multimillion-dollar condos for its C-suite executives. Half a dozen homes were left for free employee access, "in addition to the expensed stays in luxury hotels," Cloud noted.

The headquarters had catered food 24/7, with additional employee perks including free groceries, pop-up barber every month, and biweekly massages.

"The entire operation was iconically and moronically inefficient—but equally mesmerizing," the former employee tweeted.

Cloud went on to reveal that the best way to land a job at FTX was to be the female spouse of an existing employee.

"[S]tart with a bs role & make your way to the C suite in a month or two. This was an oversight on everyone—not women abusing their sexuality. Those who challenged it were churned," Cloud shared.

Cloud noted that SBF's "most disgusting lie" was effective altruism, finding the best ways to help others and putting them into practice. The company fell short of its promises like offering no-fee bank accounts and a guaranteed monthly income to hundred formerly incarcerated individuals in Chicago.

However, the stressful work culture made Bankman-Fried bring in Dr. George K. Lerner, a psychiatrist and a mental health specialist.

The "company shrink," as Cloud described Lerner, was supposedly "propositioned as a coach" for business growth consulting. While his presence was supposed to be "critical" to the company's employee satisfaction, Cloud claims he frequently inquired about her intimate life with her fiancé.

The admins of FTX were forced to "illegally ship prescriptions to Nassau that were written in CA/FL," she claimed.

Despite the heavy workload, the employees were never really given days off, Cloud revealed adding that company holidays were a matter of "joke."

"The work week was Monday to Sunday. A month into working, my coworker was chewed out by our boss for asking if we had Thanksgiving off," Cloud tweeted.

SBF Possibly Had External Connections

In conclusion, Cloud said that while SBF may have had the connections and privileges, it was the "support of strangers worldwide" that made him powerful.

"SBF didn't do it alone. Yes—he may have had connections, funding, and privilege I can't begin to comprehend—but he still could not have gotten this far without the support of strangers worldwide. He was praised and regarded as the messiah of crypto."

She added that everyone pretended not to see what was really going on. "And even in his demise, we aren't prioritizing industry preservation or integrity."