Singapore’s Cautious Wealth Fund Takes More Private Markets Risk

After Sam Bankman-Fried started the FTX cryptocurrency exchange in 2019, his company spent countless hours trying to woo GIC Pte Ltd., Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. As FTX worked back channels via power brokers and attempted to land introductions from other investors, GIC had four opportunities to buy in, according to people familiar with the matter.

Although storied venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital, as well as the massive Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and fellow Singapore state-owned investor Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd., eventually backed the flashy startup, GIC decided to do its own homework. One of its Singaporean analysts noticed FTX’s money seemed to flow through a separate entity called Alameda Research. Many red flags later, a GIC executive sent around a strongly worded letter declaring it a fraud and the work of a con man, two of the people say. The checkbook was closed, well ahead of FTX’s dramatic demise. (GIC declined to comment about FTX.)