FTX Founder 'Willing' to Testify About Its Collapse to Congress on Tuesday
Crypto exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who's denied committing fraud, has already told his story to several news outlets and beyond.
- Finalist for the Nesta Tipping Point prize and a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Sam Bankman-Fried during a live interview on Nov. 30, 2022.
Since his $30 billion crypto empire collapsed last month, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried hasn't been shy about speaking to the press, or just about anyone else (though he hasn't responded to my requests for comment). Now he's agreed to follow up his media tour with a visit to the US House of Representatives next week.
The millennial and former face of crypto, also known simply as SBF, has given interviews to Good Morning America, New York magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Vox, though that last one was apparently an accident, with SBF later saying he'd forgotten the friend he was exchanging Twitter DMs with was also a journalist.
Over the same span of the past few weeks, the founder of both crypto exchange FTX and investment firm Alameda Research also went on a number of crypto podcasts as well as a two-hour Twitter Space hosted by other crypto investors, who grilled Bankman-Fried even more relentlessly than journalists from the aforementioned outlets.
US Rep. Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California, was among those who took notice of Bankman-Fried's nonstop talking tour. On Dec. 2, the chair of the House Financial Services committee asked him to testify at a committee hearing on the FTX debacle scheduled for Dec. 13.
.@SBF_FTX, we appreciate that you've been candid in your discussions about what happened at #FTX. Your willingness to talk to the public will help the company's customers, investors, and others. To that end, we would welcome your participation in our hearing on the 13th.
— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) December 2, 2022
Bankman-Fried responded: "Once I have finished learning and reviewing what happened, I would feel like it was my duty to appear before the committee and explain. I'm not sure that will happen by the 13th. But when it does, I will testify."
Waters was having none of this uncertainty.
"Based on your role as CEO and your media interviews over the past few weeks, it's clear to us that the information you have thus far is sufficient for testimony," she responded on Dec. 5. "It is imperative that you attend our hearing on the 13th, and we are willing to schedule continued hearings if there is more information to be shared later."
On Friday, Bankman-Fried responded again, repeating some of the lines from his media tour and saying he still doesn't have access to most of his personal and professional data from FTX.
"So there is a limit to what I will be able to say, and I won't be as helpful as I'd like. But as the committee still thinks it would be useful, I am willing to testify on the 13th."
1) I still do not have access to much of my data -- professional or personal. So there is a limit to what I will be able to say, and I won't be as helpful as I'd like.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) December 9, 2022
But as the committee still thinks it would be useful, I am willing to testify on the 13th. https://t.co/KR34BsNaG1
Revelations about the holdings and close relationship between FTX and Alameda Research last month triggered a cascading series of events that led Alameda to cease operations and FTX to file for bankruptcy, with billions in investors' funds seemingly vanishing overnight.
The US Department of Justice and other agencies are investigating allegations of fraud and mishandling of funds by FTX. Bankman-Fried has denied committing fraud or purposely misusing customer money.
Waters has said that though her invitation to Bankman-Fried involves voluntary testimony, "a subpoena is definitely on the table."