Michael Kives, the ex-aide to Hillary Clinton-turned-Hollywood super-agent, seemed unbothered by FTX’s $700 million lawsuit against his firm while hanging out in London with former President Bill Clinton.
In photos exclusively obtained by The Post, Kives was pictured Monday exchanging some laughs with his former boss during a stroll through the capital’s streets.
The pair were dressed casually in jeans and light jackets and trailed by a small entourage during the London walkabout — which took place on the eve of Clinton’s trip to Albania.
The former president received a medal for his role in ending the Kosovo War in the late 1990s.
Clinton, 76, was overheard talking about the war in Iraq with Kives, who served as an aide to Bill Clinton and also Hillary Clinton during her stint as a US senator.
He later became a Hollywood agent with well-known clients including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Katy Perry.
The Post reached out to Kives and Bill Clinton for comment.
The major Democratic donor is the co-founder and managing partner of investment firm K5 Global, which was sued last month by bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.
The complaint said Kives’s firm received a whopping $700 million in misappropriated assets from FTX and its disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried in 2022, just months before his empire collapsed.
Bankman-Fried purportedly referred to Kives as “probably, the most connected person I’ve ever met” and “a one-stop shop” for important connections in politics and Hollywood.
The complaint alleged that Bankman-Fried lavished K5 Global and its co-founders, Kives and Bryan Baum, with cash as part of his bid to gain political influence and celebrity clout.
Bankman-Fried approved investments in deals that benefitted K5 Global using FTX customer funds, though they provided no benefit to the platform or its customers, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit cited one instance in which a shell company controlled by Bankman-Fried purportedly used $214 million in FTX funds to acquire a minority stake in 818 Tequila, a liquor brand owned by Kendall Jenner.
At the time, the tequila brand’s assets were worth just $2.94 million, according to SEC filings.
When FTX was on the brink of collapse last November, Bankman-Fried reportedly sought help from K5 and its leaders in a failed effort to obtain last-minute rescue financing.
FTX and various affiliates, including Bankman-Fried’s doomed cryptocurrency hedge fund Alameda Research, were ultimately forced to declare bankruptcy.
In a statement to The Post last month, a K5 spokesperson said the lawsuit was “without merit.”
“In mid-2022 an affiliate of Sam Bankman-Fried and Alameda bought a third of K5’s general partnership for cash and stock, and ultimately made a $400 million investment in certain funds managed by K5.
K5 was under the impression — like many others — that SBF was completely legitimate and they were entering into a fair, long-term, and mutually beneficial business relationship,” the spokesperson said.
In December, The Post reported that Kives stood to lose hundreds of millions of dollars due to K5 Global’s business dealings to Alameda Research prior to its collapse.
Bankman-Fried faces trial this fall on an array of federal charges for allegedly bilking FTX customers out of billions of dollars.
He has pleaded not guilty.
https://nypost.com/2023/07/04/michael-kives-seen-with-bill-clinton-amid-ftxs-700m-suit/
