FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried criticizes regulators, regrets bankruptcy filing in latest interview
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried said the collapsed crypto company shouldn’t have filed for bankruptcy protection and criticized regulators in an interview published Wednesday by news website Vox.
Bankman-Fried, known as SBF, later walked back the comments and said the direct messages he exchanged with the reporter on Twitter were not meant to be public.
“It sucks,” Bankman-Fried said in a Twitter thread. “I’m really sorry that things ended up as they did.”
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX declared bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried resigned as chief executive last week after reports that Almeda Research, a trading firm founded by Bankman-Fried, relied heavily on a token issued by FTX.
What is the FTX scandal?:How the celebrity-endorsed crypto giant collapsed into chaos
How did FTX collapse?
The public and rapid unraveling of FTX started earlier this month when news site CoinDesk reported Almeda Research had a balance sheet full of FTT, the cryptocurrency issued by FTX.
Home arena will get new name after FTX collapse
FTX bankruptcy was a ‘mistake’
Bankman-Fried said his single biggest mistake had been filing for bankruptcy protection.
“If I hadn’t done that, withdrawals would be opening up in a month with customers fully whole,” he said, according to screenshots of the Twitter direct messages.
Bankman-Fried said he should’ve tried to raise more money instead of declaring the company bankrupt. The Wall Street Journal reported Bankman-Fried had unsuccessfully searched for commitments from investors after filing for bankruptcy.
Bankman-Fried said the people in charge of FTX’s bankruptcy process “are trying to burn it all to the ground out of shame.”
Crypto crash:What happened as people voted. Here’s what’s important and why
Bankman-Fried later took back some of his comments in a Twitter thread, saying regulators have “an impossible job” and some have “deeply impressed” him “with their knowledge and thoughtfulness.”
“Some of what I said was thoughtless or overly strong–I was venting and not intending that to be public,” Bankman-Fried tweeted. “I guess at this point what I write leaks anyway.”
A Vox spokesperson told Reuters that all communication with its reporters is on-the-record unless the subject and the reporter agreed otherwise.
New CEO calls FTX situation ‘unprecedented’
After his resignation, Bankman-Fried on Nov. 11 was replaced as CEO by John J. Ray III, who oversaw Enron’s bankruptcy.
Ray attempted to distance the company from Bankman-Fried in a filing in federal bankruptcy court Thursday.
“The Debtors have made clear to employees and the public that Mr. Bankman-Fried is not employed by the Debtors and does not speak for them,” Ray said. “Mr. Bankman-Fried, currently in the Bahamas, continues to make erratic and misleading public statements.”
He specifically cited Bankman-Fried’s “f— regulators” comment in the court document and didn’t mince words when describing the situation at FTX.
“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here,” Ray said.
“From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented.”