Sam Bankman-Fried is the former CEO of FTX, a crypto exchange that recently declared bankruptcy. Many investors have not been able to withdraw their funds from FTX since it collapsed. Bankman-Fried denies having committed fraud or having deliberately misled investors. He says he has almost no money left and is now living in The Bahamas.
Bankman-Fried was once viewed as a young Warren Buffet but says he underestimated the amount of cash needed to cover FTX customers withdrawals. FTX owes its 50 largest creditors almost $3.1bn. As recently as late October, Mr. Bankman-Fried had a net worth estimated at more than $15bn.
The crypto star had become well known in Washington DC as a political donor supposedly supporting pandemic prevention and improved crypto regulation. However, in his talk with The New York Times’ reporter, Mr Bankman-Fried confessed much of his Washington DC work had been PR “masquerading as do-gooderism.” Mr Bankman-Fried said for now he was not concerned about potential criminal or civil liability. When asked if he had been truthful in his responses, Mr Bankman-Fried said he was as truthful as he knowledgeably could be. Though he did not provide evidence to support it, SBF said he believed FTX US was solvent and could in fact pay back American investors.
