Kit10Phish Explains It All: Michael Kives. The Who’s Who of Who’s That

11 September 2016 Karlie is at the US Open with sketchy wealthy and elite people:

The Who’s Who of Who’s That

[I know you know these vignettes are meant to be scanned. We're just putting Karlie Kloss and Lily Donaldson into context (we're working toward that, anyway). Get a sense of the wealth, the connections, the sketchy deeds. We're working back to modeling, yacht girls, and then how that relates to Taylor's (possible, and sometimes alleged) ex-girlfriends]

Michael Kives

In her own words:

He has pleaded not guilty. A K5 spokesperson said the lawsuit was “without merit.” “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.

Known for:

He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Distinction from Stanford University.
Former aide to both Hillary and Bill Clinton, serving alongside Huma Abedin
Kives married Lydia Gray in 2018. Guests at the wedding included the Clintons, who gave a speech together.[14][15]

Gray is a civil rights lawyer with a focus on criminal justice and First Amendment issues, and a graduate of Stanford Law.

His first media break was getting a job in the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) mailroom.

a former CAA top agent, used to represent Katy Perry,

Michael is an advisor to over 20 startups and fast-growing companies and serves as a Director on the Boards of:

Yahoo
Shutterfly
Cirque du Soleil
818 Tequila
Sprinter Spirits.

Now runs an investment fund called K5 Global.

K5 Global, Inc. is a media and financial services consultancy and venture capital business and incubator that invests in and advises entrepreneurs in a variety of industries. Specializing in new media and financial services, the firm collaborates with businesses, governments, and start-ups across a variety of industries, including sports, technology, politics, and entertainment. K5 connects influencers and celebrities to entrepreneurs and brands, and incubates global business prospects with A-list talent as a liaison for high-level startups and transaction flow. Michael Kives’s investment firm K5 Global has invested with clients such as Creative Artists Agency, TPG, and Sequoia China, as well as investments in SpaceX, the Boring Company, and Catalyte.

Assets:

The 55-year-old Wall Street titan is worth a staggering $33.6 billion.

A $9.1 million historic Tudor-style home in Montecito, known as the Porter

House:

Ariana Grande has become quite the real estate mogul. Building on her new reputation, the songstress—who opted to rent instead of buy earlier in her career—has just sold the Tudor-style home she acquired for $6.8 million from Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi in 2020, according to Dirt.

DeGeneres and de Rossi, consummate real estate investors along the Central Coast, flipped a Montecito estate they had bought six months ago for $36 million – pocketing $15 million in the off-market deal. The buyer: music manager Scooter Braun, manager for Justin Bieber and Ariande Grande.

Records show Grande flipped the 5,500-square-foot home at 210 Miramar Avenue then sold the home to an unknown buyer in an off-market deal worth $9.1 million. The buyer is Michael Kives.

Close neighbors include Prince Harry, Meghan and Oprah.

Originally constructed in England during the 1700s as two separate barns, the so-called Porter House was born from the two 18th-century structures being dismantled, shipped to California, and painstakingly fused back together in the 20th-century, creating a Tudor-style main residence that spans a reported 5,500 square feet, though it’s currently configured with just two bedrooms.

Set behind high hedges and great gates on a 1.3-acre lot, the house is perennially shaded by mature trees. Inside, the Narnia-like interior spaces include two separate kitchens, both with designer appliances, two indoor dining areas, two full bathrooms and two powder rooms. There are vaulted ceilings throughout, and a mix of concrete, stone and brick floors. Also on the premises are a dedicated laundry room and at least five fireplaces.

A $12.7 million house in Beverly Hills:

Dirt reported that Michael And Lydia Kives acquired the single-family residence (SFR) in Beverly Hills through Kurt Rappaport And Bryce Pennel. They have bought the property from billionaire tech tycoon, Ted Waitt.

Located at 1170 Loma Linda Dr in Beverly Hills, the property spans approximately 6,700 square feet and was sold for a total of $12,700,000, resulting in a price per square foot of $1,895.

Designed by architect Gerard Colcord in 1951, although it has since undergone significant renovations. It sits on a lot of 0.76-acres on a private cul-de-sac on a hidden ridgeline in Beverly Hills’ Coldwater Canyon area.

The property is mostly single-story and has a traditional appearance to its exterior with white clapboard siding. Inside, the style is more contemporary, and according to Dirt.com, the property boasts five bedrooms and seven bathrooms.

Vacations-

(for Josh Kushner & Karlie Kloss’ 2nd Wedding Reception Party)

Lake Powell region of Utah

(I see Josh Kushner, Mikey Hess, Scooter & Yael Braun, and Katy Perry)

Miami

Florida!!!

Aspen

Cabo

Saint Barthelemy, a French-speaking Caribbean island commonly known as St. Barts

Paris

Italy

Prague

Hungry

Rome

Santorini is one of the Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea, Greece

Athens

Egypt

Spain

India

Jordan

Israel

Rub Elbows with:

Singh testified that Bankman-Fried had hoped to use Kives’ and K5’s high-profile connections in entertainment and politics to “arrange a dinner with us, Elon, Obama, and Zuckerberg in a month.”

Close advisor to investor Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett said of Kives, “I have known Michael for 10 years and he is one of the most creative and well-connected professionals in his space. Michael knows the worlds of finance, media, technology and popular culture and has an unusual understanding of how those industries will intersect and develop in the future.”

Bill Clinton Gala

After a star-studded gala in February 2014, Bill Clinton and his entourage headed to a vegan restaurant in Los Angeles for an intimate dinner with friends. Their destination was Crossroads Kitchen: Ben Schwerin, a future Snapchat executive, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell—accused of procuring underage girls for sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein—and tech CEO Scott Borgerson, now rumored to be her husband.

Yacht Vaca/Parties

it was a high-seas extravaganza aboard Jeff Bezos' magnificent yacht. Ahead of her 54th birthday on Tuesday, the birthday girl's star-studded buddy list was spotted having fun on the superyacht Koru in St. Barts: Lauren Sanchez's birthday celebration on Jeff Bezos' yacht. The Kives and the Bezos-Sanchez duo had previously vacationed together in 2019. Nurse Jamie Sherrill, a renowned skincare guru in Hollywood. Veronica Grazer, the wife of TV and movie producer Brian Grazer, Elsa Collins, the wife of NBA center turned coach Jarron Collins, was also present. October Gonzalez, the 43-year-old actress known for her roles in Modern Family, The View, and Play It Forward, joined the celebration, having tied the knot with former NFL star Tony Gonzalez.

Announcement of Eight Reserve by 818 Tequila

Last night, Kendall Jenner and friends celebrated the announcement of Eight Reserve by 818, the new ultra-premium Añejo Reserve from her award-winning 818 Tequila. Jenner was joined by friends and family, including Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Kris Jenner, Hailey Bieber, Justin Bieber, Caitlyn Jenner, Corey Gamble, Harry Hudson, Fai Khadra, Renell Medrano, Natalie Halcro, Olivia Pierson, Zack Bia, and Taco?

Alphabetical

Huma Abedin, Governor of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Jessica Alba, Princess Beatrice of Jordan, Jeff Bezos, Zack Bia, Hailey Bieber, Justin Bieber, Orlando Bloom, Scott Borgerson, Tom Brady, Warren Buffett, Gisele Bündchen, Bill & Hillary Clinton, Seinfeld creator Larry David, Leonardo DiCaprio, Barry Diller (billionaire media mogul), Jesse Eisenberg, Larry Fink, Corey Gamble, David Geffen, October Gonzalez, Mikhail Gorbachev, billionaire Ken Griffin founded hedge fund Citadel and according to Forbes is worth an estimated $34 billion (around £28 billion), Natalie Halcro, Prince Harry, oil company heir Michael Herd, Harry Hudson, Kate Hudson, Caitlyn Jenner, Kendall Jenner, Kylie Jenner, Ara Keshishian, Khloe Kardashian, Kim Kardashian, Fai Khadra, Bobby Kotick, Meghan Markle, Ghislaine Maxwell, Renell Medrano, Elon Musk, Obama, Olivia Pierson, Nelson Peltz, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Lauren Sanchez, Ben Schwerin, a future Snapchat executive, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ben Schwerin (former Snapchat executive), Nurse Jamie Sherrill, a renowned skincare guru in Hollywood, Sia, Jeff Speich, Eric Stonestreet, United Talent Agency (UTA) agent Darnell Strom, Amélie Tremblay, Bruce Willis, Reese Witherspoon, entrepreneur Whitney Wolfe, Zuckerberg

Richard Lovett, president of CAA, said of Kives’ departure, “Michael Kives is an absolute original. Because of his incredible instincts and unique ability to connect people, he has created a vast network that will help to provide growth and opportunity for anyone fortunate enough to work with him.”

Troubles/(Alleged) Crimes:

MANHATTAN (CN) — Nishad Singh, the former director of engineering for the FTX cryptocurrency trading platform, testified on Monday that the company’s founder and public face, Sam Bankman-Fried, spent billions of dollars of company money on “ostentatious” real estate, starstruck endorsement deals with actors and athletes, and enormous venture capital investments. Much of the government’s case against Bankman-Fried hinged on convincing the jury that he’d stolen billions of dollars worth of customer money to make risky bets. The now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange spent $1.13 billion on celebrity endorsements and sponsorship deals prior to its implosion, the former FTX director of engineering testified Monday.

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.

Singh, a close friend of Bankman-Fried’s younger brother, testified as a cooperating witness at trial as part of a plea agreement reached in February, in which he pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, money laundering and campaign finance violations. He testified that FTX’s spending around the time of the massive deficit in deposit funds included “real estate investments, VC investment, campaign donations and speculative bets and trading.” Singh, who started at both Alameda and FTX as a software engineer, said he pleaded guilty because he had “implicitly and explicitly greenlit transactions I knew must have been digging a little deeper, and therefore coming from customer funds.” Singh testified he was eventually made aware of an enormous $8 billion “hole” in “funds that FTX should have had on hand to supply customer withdrawal.”

Salame separately made over $20 million in contributions to Republican campaigns in his own name

Making him the 16th top individual contributor from 2021 to 2022.

thanks to $40 million in donations to Democratic campaigns

Bankman-Fried ranked sixth overall

Singh also spoke about Bankman-Fried’s spending on venture capital investments,

including a $1 billion bitcoin mining firm in Kazakhstan
and nearly $500 million on an artificial intelligence company.

Singh said Bankman-Fried’s decision during a “real estate purchasing spree” to buy shared housing for FTX’s employees at an oceanside luxury resort island in the Bahamas was met with “substantial disagreement” by fellow co-workers, who found the $35 million penthouse condo “super ostentatious.”

The complaint alleges that Bankman-Fried, Kives, and Baum signed a term sheet in February 2022. This agreement stipulates that Bankman-Fried or a related entity would personally give each of Kives and Baum $125 million. The complaint also alleges that by the end of September 2022, Alameda Research Ltd. had transferred Kives and Baum each personally received $125 million, with half-a-billion dollars on top of all that going to various K5 entities as part of two transactions, which the Thursday filing labels as the “K5 Transaction” and “Mount Olympus Transaction.” Those expenses add up to $700 million, which is the figure FTX’s bankruptcy lawyers are aiming to recover from Kives, Baum, and K5 for transactions conducted without “due diligence.”

Moreover, SBF also agreed to invest billions into K5 Global and affiliated entities over the next three years. Singh said he was he was “pretty shocked” when he reviewed a term sheet for Alameda’s $1 billion purchase of K5's general partnership for cash and stock in 2022, which he said laid out hundreds of millions of bonuses to Kives and K5 cofounder Bryan Baum, and funding for K5’s venture capital projects.

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.

The filing alleges that Kives and Baum knew or should have known that the deal did not provide reasonably equivalent value to Alameda Research. Moreover, they also should have known that SBF personally benefited from them.

The FTX case is a significant development for crypto traders. It highlights the potential risks associated with the industry’s business practices and underscores the need for transparency and accountability. Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over the month-long trial in November. Found Bankman-Fried guilty of seven charges tied to the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and the roughly $10 billion of customer deposits that went missing.

Amerlierations:

The Wall Street titan is a Republican mega-donor
Kives is a fundraiser for the Clinton Foundation and helped fundraise for Hillary’s Presidential campaign Kives was a major fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 campaign, bundling more than $5 million.[2]
After Brillstein, Buttigieg headed to the home of former CAA agent Michael Kives (who now runs K5 Global) and attorney wife Lydia Kives (of the Bail Project) for a meet-and-greet with about 25 industry players (including CAA’s Richard Lovett, Untitled Entertainment’s Jason Weinberg, MGM’s Jon Glickman and wife Christy Callahan, and attorney Marcy Morris)