Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO and Co-Founder of the recently collapsed FTX Crypto Exchange has said that “he did not commit any fraud deliberately”. In his first public appearance after the failure of FTX in early November, he said he suffered from a “bad month”. He said he had almost run out of his money, the media has reported.
Bankman-Fried’s company, which was valued at $32 billion earlier, filed for bankruptcy due to “mismanagement”. As per a BBC report, multiple investors who had put their money into the company have not been able to get their funds back so far.
Bankman-Fried went against his lawyers’ advice and suggestions about not speaking on the matter publicly. He has also denied allegations of taking any personal money from the FTX. He also stated that he has “close to nothing” left with him now. He further claimed that he had just one credit card left with him with about $100,000 of debt.
He was quoted as saying that he had not misled investors in his company on purpose. Bankman claimed, “I didn’t ever try to commit fraud.” He did not provide any clarity on what happened with the money and its movement between FTX and other associated firms. He was also hesitant to share information about the trading deals.
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Bankman-Fried agreed that he underestimated the amount of cash and money required for the FTX customers’ withdrawals. And this resulted in the exchange in negative ways. According to the same report, he said he was not worried about criminal and civil liability.
As of now, FTX owes about $3.1 billion to its 50 largest creditors, as per court filings. Before the downfall of his firm, he was a well-known political donor in Washington, DC.
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