Former FTX Employee Sues Bankrupt Crypto Exchange Seeking $275,000 in Unpaid Bonus: Court Docs

A former FTX employee who was hired to work with the fallen crypto empire’s charity wing is taking legal action to get his unpaid 2022 bonus.

In a new court document filed on November 13th, Ross Rheingans-Yoo says that FTX still owes him $275,000 of the $650,000 that he was supposed to receive as a bonus last year.

“The Debtors paid Rheingans-Yoo $375,000 cash out of his $650,000 first-half 2022 bonus on or around September 15, 2022. However, the Debtors did not pay the remaining $275,000 in cash.”

The filing says that based on a bonus memo from former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Rheingans-Yoo can choose to receive the bonus in cash, options or a combination of the two, but the exchange is now making false assertions to renege on its obligation.

“The Debtors argue that Rheingans-Yoo ‘elected to receive his 2022 bonus half in cash and half in options.’ …However, the Debtors failed to present any direct evidence of Rheingans-Yoo’s purported election despite having an e-discovery vendor at their disposal who identified over 5,000 Rheingans-Yoo emails, Slack threads and documents…

Rheingans-Yoo never elected to receive options as part of his first-half 2022 bonus.”

The former Jane Street trader also seeks to get another $650,000 to donate to charity, citing the provisions of the employment agreement and a statement from Bankman-Fried.

“Rheingans-Yoo’s compensation under Ross Terms included base salary, a cash bonus, and a separate right to direct to charity a payment in the same amount as his cash bonus.”

Rheingans-Yoo says he never resigned. He also claims $5,763.33 in unpaid prepetition salary and at least $62,847.75 in post-petition salary.

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