Even as critics Angry that he hasn’t been in jail yet, Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, gave a live video interview amid rumors that he would shed his dangerous public image. New York TimesDealBook meeting on Wednesday.
Banman-Fried said, speaking from the Bahamas, where FTX is headquartered. Times Finance columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin said, “I never tried to cheat anyone.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the US Department of Justice are all currently investigating how FTX, once the world’s third largest and valued at $32 billion, was liquidated in a matter of days in early November. Rival exchange Binance, which moved to rescue it, pulled out of the deal, saying FTX’s problems were “beyond our control or ability to help.”
In the midst of the turmoil, Banman-Fried was forced to step down as CEO, allowing the company to file for bankruptcy, but only days after the company’s leaders forced him to step down.
Banman-Fried told Sorkin in their hour-long interview that he made a lot of mistakes, tapped his feet and waited a lot. The eyes are cast down. Another conclusion: “I’ve had a bad month.”
At one point, Sorkin is pushing the irresponsibility of FTX’s management and reporting on the hedonistic luxury they live in. “It looks like there’s a slumber party where a lot of kids on Adderall are having a slumber party.”
“We messed up big,” Banman-Fried replied. He, however, denied that the FTX group in the Bahamas had an out-of-control drug culture. “We used to play board games at our parties,” he said. “I didn’t see any illegal drug use.” He said he was prescribed medication to help him focus and concentrate.
In the wake of the Enron accounting scandal in 2001, the ruins of FTX, which was overseen by CEO John J. Ray III, wrote in the bankruptcy filing: “A complete failure of corporate control, and the absence of such completely reliable financial information as occurred here.” Investors are gone, there’s an undisclosed $8 billion deficit on the balance sheet, and the exchange still owes $3.1 billion to its top 50 creditors.
Many hold Bankman-Fried personally responsible for the crisis, and there are still significant questions about whether FTX and Alameda Research — a sister business he co-founded — mishandled client funds. In the year On November 22, attorneys told a Delaware bankruptcy court that Bankman-Fried FTX ran as a “personal fiduciary,” disclosing the company’s massive real estate deals in the Bahamas (where it is headquartered), with “significant amounts” of the assets either stolen or lost.” Bankman-Fried in Washington Crypto The fallout has spilled over into Congress, with industry funneling millions in political donations to Democrats and Republicans on behalf of the industry.
In the first half of the interview, Sorkin pressed the relationship between FTX and Alameda, repeatedly arguing that Banman-Fried had no idea what was going on with the latter business. “Because of the conflict of interest, I was nervous about getting too involved,” he said. “I didn’t have the bandwidth to manage two companies at once.” At issue were FTX’s massive loans of customer money to Alameda to cover the firm’s mounting losses, which — as bad a decision as it appears — Bankman-Fried framed as a mistake rather than a deliberate mistake. “I didn’t knowingly mix my money,” he said.
As for whether to leave the U.S. for fear of prosecution or arrest, Banman-Fried said he believes he can travel freely and has considered it. “I personally don’t think so. [criminal liability]” Although “that’s not what I focus on,” he says, “the most important thing here is all the customers.” He figured he could finally answer questions at a congressional hearing. Billionaire Mark Cuban recently told TMZ that if he were in Younger’s shoes, “I’d be afraid to go to jail for a long time.”
Agreeing to a sit-down live broadcast New York Times Bankman-Fried seems like a poor legal strategy for someone under intense scrutiny, but the 30-year-old former billionaire is not out of character. In the year On November 18, Paul Weiss, who filed a suicidal complaint on his behalf citing conflicts of interest and “incessant and disturbing tweets,” was dismissed by his attorneys.
Asked by Sorkin what he thought of his then-lawyers agreeing to the interview — a question that drew laughter from the audience — Bankman-Fried indicated that he was adamantly against it, saying, “I have an obligation to speak up and explain what happened.”
Bankman-Fried says he only has $100,000 in the bank now and tells Sorkin he’s down to one working credit card. Some crypto watchers believe that he has a huge amount of money saved up. “I have no hidden money here,” he insisted.
of Times And other mainstream media continued to write what some considered “pieces of puff” against the disgraced investor, with several prominent investors outraged. Newspapers again gave him a big platform to weave his own narrative about FTX’s sudden death. Before introducing Bankman-Fried, Sorkin defended the journalistic importance of the interview, calling it “one of the most important” of the day.
Sorkin had earlier read an angry letter from a man who said he had lost his life savings in FTX — about $2 million, but mostly because Banman-Fried was able to talk about the exchange because of the disaster. Management has consistently expressed surprise at the speed and scale of the disaster. Oftentimes, he said, he simply doesn’t have to find relevant information or details.
At the end of the interview, Sorkin asked if it was true during their conversation. Stammering a bit instead of saying “yes,” Bankman-Fried finally landed on a very reassuring phrase.
“I was as true as I knew,” he said.
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