- Former FTX CEO appeared in a live interview with the New York Times.
- Bankman-Fried told the public FTX.US was solvent and that withdrawals would be open.
- The former CEO blamed the company’s collapse on mismanagement due to scale.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the bankrupt FTX crypto exchange, has appeared before the public at the DealBook Summit in New York for the first time since FTX’s collapse.
New York Times (NYT) journalist Andrew Sorkin questioned Bankman-Fried via video conference call through an hour-long interview. They discussed various topics, including how FTX and Alameda Research handled customer assets and whether Bankman-Fried was worried about being held legally responsible for FTX’s fall.
In the interview, Bankman-Fried assured the public that FTX’s US sister company, FTX.US, was ‘fully solvent’ and that withdrawals could be opened from December 1, 2022, ‘to make users whole.’ However, the former CEO commented on its global platform:
[It was] massive oversight of risk management and failure of oversight. I did not knowingly commingle funds. We got too big, and I did not properly create enough oversight.
While framing the FTX collapse as mismanagement due to scale, Bankman-Fried provided no answers regarding why the company had used the FTT token as collateral. When the NYT journalist asked Bankman-Fried why he deleted his tweets that assured customers that all funds were available, he said, “Things change fast.” He continued:
“Our US team tried to seize assets from our exchange for safekeeping, and the Bahamian regulators also took some assets into safekeeping. And there have also been some improper access of assets on the exchange.”
Bankman Fried further affirmed that his criminal culpability was not his primary concern, noting:
I don’t think that I have [criminal liability] … but the real answer is that’s not what I’m focusing on.
FTX imploded earlier last month after a liquidity crunch led to halting customer withdrawals and filing for bankruptcy on November 11.
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