Wife of 3AC founder sells Singapore mansion for $38.5 million

Tao Yaqiong, the wife of Zhu Su, co-founder of the bankrupt hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), sold her Singapore-based mansion for a whopping $38.5 million. She managed to complete the sale despite a court-ordered asset freeze.

According to Bloomberg News, property records revealed that Yaqiong began the sale process in July and finalized it last month. Yaqiong, also known as Evelyn, purchased the property in 2020 for S$28.5 million, equivalent to $20.63 million at the time. 

The luxury bungalow is located on Dalvey Road, near the Singapore Botanic Gardens, and spans a land area of 15,568 square feet (1,446 square meters). After the purchase, Yaqiong renovated the property.

Chrispianto Karim, a Singaporean and member of the Indonesian Karim family, purchased the mansion. The Karim family runs the palm oil company, Musim Mas Group.  

The liquidator of Three Arrows, Teneo, secured a global freeze of assets worth $1.14 billion. The assets belong to Zhu, Davies, and Davies’ wife, Kelly Chen. The liquidator claims that 3AC owes about $3.3 billion to its creditors.

One of assets that can’t be sold include another mansion situated on Yarwood Avenue in Singapore. Zhu and his wife bought the mansion as trustees for S$48.8 million in late 2021 and tried to sell it in 2022. Zhu also owns another smaller property located at Balmoral Road.

What happened to 3AC

Zhu Su and Kyle Davies founded Three Arrows Capital (3AC) in 2012. Initially, the company focused on identifying and exploiting small price discrepancies in foreign exchange derivatives. However, the profits were minimal, amounting to just fractions of a cent for each dollar traded. In 2017, banks began restricting 3AC’s activities, leading the firm to fully shift its focus to the cryptocurrency sector. 

Three Arrows Capital (3AC) became one of the world’s largest crypto-based hedge funds. At its peak, 3AC managed over $18 billion worth of assets. The hedge fund invested in famous crypto projects like Ethereum, Polkadot, Solana, Avalanche and WorldCoin. 

During the last bull run, Zhu Su took to Twitter to talk about buying good-class bungalows. He said, “Thinking about buying all the good-class bungalows in Singapore and turning them into parks & regenerative farming.”

In 2022, 3AC collapsed after the bear market brought down many companies and projects, including Terra Luna and FTX. The hedge fund was vulnerable due to excessive borrowing activities in hopes of achieving higher returns on investment. 

3AC had heavily invested in LUNA and UST tokens, and the collapse of these tokens led to a sharp decline in the crypto market. The hedge fund began receiving margin calls from lenders but failed to meet them, resulting in major financial strain and leading to bankruptcy.

In 2023, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) banned Zhu and Davies from regulated financial activities for nine years. Zhu faced jail time due to his lack of cooperation to close down 3AC.