Singapore state investment fund Temasek Holdings says it has cut the salaries of employees responsible for its investment in crypto exchange FTX, which collapsed last year.

Last year, the fund erased the entire $275 million (£222.8 million) it had invested in FTX.

Prosecutors have accused former FTX executive Sam Bankman-Fried of orchestrating an “epic” scam that could cost investors billions of dollars.

Mr. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

“The investment team and senior management, who were ultimately responsible for the investment decisions made, took collective responsibility and suffered reduced compensation,” Temasek said. said in a statement on Monday.

The Sovereign Wealth Fund also said it was “disappointed with our investment results and the negative impact on our reputation.”

Temasek did not say how much of the pay cut was.

It invested $210 million and then another $65 million in FTX in two funding rounds between October 2021 and January 2022.

Last year, state-owned funds said that before making those investments, they spent eight months evaluating the cryptocurrency exchange. This includes reviewing an audited financial statement that “shows it profitable.”

As of March 2022, Temasek is worth over S$403 billion ($298.1 billion; £241.3 billion), so the money Temasek has put into the crypto platform accounts for only a billion small percentage of its investments.

However, Singapore’s deputy prime minister Lawrence Wong said in December that Temasek’s loss in FTX had damaged the fund’s reputation.

“The fact that other leading global institutional investors like BlackRock and Sequoia Capital also invest in FTX does not mitigate this,” added Mr. Wong, who is also the country’s finance minister.

Sovereign wealth funds are like a savings account for a country, and they typically invest in stocks, currencies, property, or other assets.

FTX, which a year ago was valued at $32 billion, filed for bankruptcy protection in November. It is estimated that $8 billion of customer funds were lost.

Mr. Bankman-Fried, who co-founded FTX in 2019, is one of the most popular figures in the crypto industry, known for his political connections, celebrity endorsements and donations. relief for other struggling companies.

In December, prosecutors announced eight criminal charges against Mr. Bankman-Fried, including wire fraud, money laundering and campaign finance violations. Five other charges were filed against him in March. Financial regulators have also brought claims against Mr. Bankman-Fried.

FTX co-founders Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, a former director of Alameda, have also been charged over their alleged roles in the company’s downfall.

Mr. Bankman-Fried was arrested in December in the Bahamas, where he lives and FTX is based.