The Nauru Ring Road runs around the island nation of Nauru.
(C) Hadi Zaher | moment | Getty’s paintings
The younger brother of Sam Bankman-Fried, who was a key lobbyist for the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was considering buying the Pacific island nation of Nauru to create a fortified bunker state of the apocalypse, according to a lawsuit filed in Delaware bankruptcy court.
Gabe Bankman-Fried considered buying Nauru in a “50%-99.99% death event” to protect his philanthropic allies and create a genetically enhanced human species, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by lawyers for Sullivan & Cromwell, which seeks to recoup billions of dollars from FTX’s collapse.
Life in a bunker is well-documented fixation amongst tech billionaires, especially those that discover as preparing for doom. There’s also a fascination with buying huge properties in the Pacific and even owning small islands there.
During the years leading up to FTX, older brother Bankman-Fried touted a philanthropic lifestyle called effective altruism, and established a philanthropic arm with this in mind. Admirers of effective altruism work to maximize their income in order that they’ll spend their money in what they consider is most helpful to humanity.
Gabe Bankman-Fried was FTX’s most visible representative in Washington, D.C., and was related to bipartisan charitable donations that bumped into the a whole lot of tens of millions. Together with an unnamed philanthropic officer, FTX considered purchasing Nauru, partly to support “reasonable regulation of human genetic enhancement and the construction of a laboratory there.”
A representative from Nauru confirmed that the island nation was not and has never been on the market.
Nauru, with a population of around 12,000, is just over 2,100 miles from Brisbane, Australia. That is where FTX lawyers claim that the Bankman-Fried team wanted to arrange an emergency base for themselves and a select group of “EAs”, i.e. effective altruists.
As well as to serving as a refuge in case of an apocalypse, “there are probably other things value doing with a sovereign country,” according to a memo between the younger Bankman-Fried and a philanthropic adviser, noted in the lawsuit.
TO WATCH: FTX wants to get better $700 million from the investment firm of a former Clinton adviser
![FTX wants to recover $700 million from the investment firm of a former Clinton adviser](https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/107261448-16875193801687519376-30008116647-1080pnbcnews.jpg?v=1687521572&w=750&h=422&vtcrop=y)