A charity promoting effective altruism, funded by the incarcerated Sam Bankman-Fried, known for his involvement in cryptocurrency fraud, is set to close in the aftermath of the FTX debacle.
Effective Ventures UK (EV) revealed in its financial statements the plan to gradually dissolve, targeting a shutdown in 2025 or later. This comes after its primary initiatives were transitioned into independent entities. The organization also stated it would not be funding any new projects.
Recently, the charity announced its decision to sell Wytham Abbey, a historic 15th-century estate acquired for hosting philanthropic events and gatherings.
Rob Gledhill, EV’s CEO, shared on a forum for the movement, that the decision to sell the property came after discussions with major contributors to the Abbey and was agreed upon by the EV board.
“This project will exhaust its funding by the end of April, leading to a halt in its operations. Subsequently, EV UK will handle the sale of its assets.”
Effective Ventures UK, with a 2022 revenue exceeding £140 million, was established to support altruistic projects with the goal of benefiting as many people as possible.
Inspired by the principles of Oxford philosopher William MacAskill, practitioners of Effective Altruism (EAs) strive to dedicate their lives and careers to causes such as animal rights, mitigating existential risks to humanity, or preventing the development of hazardous artificial intelligence.
This concept has gained traction among Silicon Valley and prestigious academic institutions. Sam Bankman-Fried had contributed millions to the movement. However, the collapse of his cryptocurrency venture, FTX, and his ensuing fraud conviction, precipitated a crisis for the charity.
In December, EV announced on an online forum that it would be transitioning its primary charitable initiatives to a decentralized model.
This development followed the sentencing of Bankman-Fried to a 25-year prison term last Thursday. He was found guilty of orchestrating an $11 billion (£8.7 billion) cryptocurrency fraud, which involved diverting billions of dollars from customers to finance high-risk investments and charitable contributions.
EV has expressed strong disapproval of Bankman-Fried’s actions.
In November, both the UK branch of EV and its American counterpart agreed to return $26.8 million to the insolvent FTX estate. This sum represents the total amount received from FTX in 2022.
The UK charity is currently under scrutiny by the Charity Commission, which is investigating its management practices and possible conflicts of interest.
A thorough internal inquiry conducted by Mintz, a law firm, into the ties between FTX and Effective Ventures concluded that the charity had no knowledge of Bankman-Fried’s illegal activities.
