FTX Discussed $100 Million Liverpool, Manchester United Deals

Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX held talks to sponsor English Premier League teams Manchester United and Liverpool earlier this year, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The discussions underscore the now-bankrupt company’s ambitions to expand its global reach, and its willingness to spend significant sums of money to do so.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have begun investigating FTX’s collapse, a decline that included an unexplained $8 billion shortfall in funds, and the US Justice Department’s bankruptcy watchdog has called for an independent probe. Bankman-Fried is facing class-action lawsuits and regulatory probes by the SEC.