Temasek cuts compensation of senior team, takes ‘collective accountability’ over failed FTX investment

SINGAPORE – Temasek said it has cut the compensation of its senior management and the investment team involved in the failed investment in FTX, as they take accountability for the reputational damage suffered by Singapore’s investment company.

This was disclosed in a statement issued on Monday by Temasek chairman Lim Boon Heng.  

Mr Lim said: “An independent team has conducted an internal review of the investment and the findings were directly presented to the Board Risk and Sustainability Committee, and to our board.

“Although there was no misconduct by the investment team in reaching their investment recommendation, the investment team, and senior management, who are ultimately responsible for investment decisions made, took collective accountability and had their compensation reduced.” 

Temasek added that it has drawn learnings from this incident, such as strengthening the approach on reviewing the governance, management and controls of a portfolio company, especially if it is fast-growing. 

The previously high-flying FTX, led by founder Sam Bankman-Fried, collapsed in November 2022 after a damaging report by CoinDesk involving trading firm Alameda Research, which was affiliated to FTX.

Temasek invested US$210 million (S$284 million) in FTX International and US$65 million in FTX US across two funding rounds from October 2021 to January 2022. The investment in FTX represented 0.09 per cent of Temasek’s net portfolio value of $403 billion as at March 31, 2022.