Just weeks after being pulled into litigation, the venue’s owners hosted a conference with controversial attendees.
The Rose Garden Inn, a South Berkeley landmark on Telegraph Avenue, now serves as the headquarters for a tech-backed nonprofit embroiled in the aftermath of Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency fraud. Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange FTX collapsed in November 2022, leading corporate lawyers to liquidate assets and recover funds.
In May, FTX lawyers alleged that the new owners of the Rose Garden Inn used $1 million in FTX funds to purchase the property and refused to return the money. The inn, now called Lighthaven, is owned by Lightcone Rose Garden LLC, associated with the Center for Applied Rationality and Lightcone Infrastructure.
The complaint, first reported by The Guardian, claims the FTX Foundation sent $1 million as a loan for the purchase, which was never repaid. Lightcone Infrastructure’s CEO, Oliver Habryka, stated that the escrow company handling the purchase has tried to return the funds to FTX.
The property, costing $16.5 million, was funded by a loan from Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn. The inn, a historic landmark, now hosts events on tech issues, including a recent conference featuring controversial figures like Razib Khan and Stephen Hsu.
