FTX employees say: We have lost our life savings

A screenshot of an FTX employee’s self-narration was circulated in the community. We confirmed most of its authenticity and the article was compiled.
The full text is as follows:
I am a source close to the situation at FTX. SBF has ruined the lives of many of his current and former employees. Everyone at FTX is shocked and disappointed. They were all fighting for SBF until they found out what happened on Twitter. SBF's inner circle are the only ones who know what happened.

Many employees have their life savings on FTX. SBF promotes FTX as a trustworthy bank both internally and externally. FTX employee bonuses often include FTX stock and FTT. Most employees keep their funds on the platform. They either deposit their salaries directly or transfer them to FTX after receiving them. Employees actively develop products that make it easier to automatically send money to FTX. This is promoted both internally and externally.

In October 2021, FTX repurchased Binance shares, which was promoted internally by Sam and others as a big win. For the first time, Sam and Ramnik gave employees the opportunity to invest in FTX at a 50% discount. This limit was $250,000 and could be matched with an investment of up to $250,000 made by FTX US at market price. This would bring the total to $500,000. They heavily promoted this deal to all employees.

From senior leadership to customer support, most people thought this was a great opportunity. Equity had to be earned by working at FTX, and no employees received equity upon being hired. Employees had two weeks to wire money to FTX before Thanksgiving, and FTX followed up relentlessly. Sam and others saw this as an opportunity to make 100% overnight and 4-5x in a few years.

Most people invested more than they should have. Everyone believed in SBF. Many have now lost their life savings because they thought Sam and FTX were a safe bet and they believed in him. Employees are now worried that their money has been sent to Alameda.

On June 6, 2022, Sam claimed that he was hiring more people while others were being laid off. He talked about it on CNBC. Yet SAM laid off over 20 people the next day. Employees discovered that they were fired when they could no longer speak in the Slack chat. They were deleted one by one. Sam did not fire the employee directly. He simply posted a message in the internal Slack within hours of the firing, more or less blaming the employee for not being a cultural fit.

Nishad's long-time girlfriend, Claire, is immediately promoted to head of HR. She has the power to fire anyone she deems a "bad cultural fit" and who disagrees with Sam.

Only SAM's inner circle knew what was going on, yes, that's it.
Subsequent supplement:
https://twitter.com/AutismCapital/status/1590852094894149632

The previous letter is mostly correct, but I would like to correct a few details:

Bonuses are usually paid in FTX equity or cash. Some early employees received FTT when the token was first created, but as far as I know, have never received it since.

Indeed, you can invest up to $250,000 on FTX at a 50% discount. You can also invest at market price on FTX US, but there is no $250,000 cap. It is not heavily marketed to employees.

The layoffs part is true. There are many other smaller invisible layoffs not mentioned in your post. The information about Claire may be true, but I can't confirm it one way or another.

I personally doubt that anyone other than Sam, Nishad, Gary, and Caroline really understands the full picture of what is going on. You could probably piece together a story from the profit amounts vs. the expenses/investments, but overall I don't think anyone knows what is going on behind the scenes to cause the discrepancy. I'm a senior employee and I have no idea. SAM has a multi-functional apartment in the Bahamas. Nishad and Claire share a room in that apartment, and the other rooms are occupied by other FTX employees.

There are two possible inner groups:

1) People who know what happened: Sam, Caroline, Nishad, Gary

I firmly believe that no one else is part of this group. I have had multiple other employees confirm this to me. I have also discussed financials at length with FTX Ventures team members (Amy, Ramnik, and former Alameda traders) and I believe this is not part of their understanding.

2) People who knew about the situation before the public was informed

Sam, Caroline, Gary, Nishad, Ramnik, Constance, Claire, Ryne, Zach, Amy, and maybe a few others