Sam Bankman-Fried, the former golden boy of the crypto world, has spoken out in a major interview for the first time since his crypto exchange FTX was forced to file for bankruptcy protection.
At a conference organized by the Financial Times on the night of Thursday Swedish time, Sam Bankman-Fried, who participated on a link from the Bahamas, admitted serious flaws in how the company was run.
— I have made many mistakes. There are things I would have given anything to go back and redo, he said.
Dropped fraud charges
He admitted that he should have focused more on managing risk and protecting customers. However, he rejected accusations that it was a fraud.
It was on November 11 that it became clear that FTX could not be saved and the company was forced to apply for bankruptcy protection in the USA. In the days before, customers had rushed to withdraw their money from the platform.
Since then, a series of question marks have surfaced around FTX. Like, for example, a hole in the balance sheet of 8 billion dollars.
The customers’ money has, according to reports, been channeled to Sam Bankman-Fried’s investment company Alameda Research where it has been used for high-risk investments.
Bankruptcy trustee John J Ray III, who took over the company in connection with the bankruptcy filing, does not mince words.
FTX was the most mismanaged company he had ever seen in terms of control functions. The company had not followed basic accounting principles and was mired in conflicts.
However, Sam Bankman-Fried did not give an answer to exactly where the customers’ money has ended up and where the missing billions have gone during the interview.
Krypton’s Lehman Brothers
He and the company are now being investigated by American authorities and he risks a series of lawsuits.
When FTX was at its peak, the company was valued at $32 billion. Now the company has debts of just over 3 billion dollars to the 50 largest creditors. In addition to that, there are millions of other creditors worldwide who are not getting their money.
The FTX crash has created ripples in the crypto world. Several companies with exposure to FTX have also been forced to file for bankruptcy, such as the crypto lender Blockfi.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also spoke at the same conference. She called the FTX crash the Lehman Brothers of the crypto industry, referring to the collapse of the major bank during the 2008 financial crisis.