Sam Bankman-Fried, a co-founder of FTX, has repeatedly denied allegations made by the US government that he misappropriated $8 billion in client assets in the months prior to his federal charges on money laundering and misuse of customer cash.
Sam Bankman-Fried responds to FBI charges
In a post on Substack on Thursday morning, Sam Bankman-Fried said that Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao had clearly aimed a month’s attempt to bring down FTX. Additionally, he denied allegations that he stole billions of dollars in customer funds.
Bankman-first Fried’s main defence against FBI allegations is that he planned an $8 billion fraud that devastated his $32 billion cryptocurrency company.
Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to eight federal offences, including fraud and money laundering, and was released earlier this month on a $250 million recognizance bail. The trial to decide his fate will start in October of this year following his most recent court appearance.
Beginning in 2022, Bankman-Fried estimated Alameda’s net worth to be $99 billion. He predicted that by October, the net assets of his hedge fund will be $10 billion. He compared his FTT token to Tesla stock and the Invesco QQQ ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq 100, and blamed the value decrease on the market.
Bankman-Fried sticks to his story
According to regulators and prosecutors, FTX and Alameda are suspected of being tools rather than legally valid companies in Fried’s Bankman-scam. According to FTX’s restructuring executives, the firms suffered significant and perplexing liquidity constraints when FTX filed for bankruptcy in November.
With the assistance of his former executives Caroline Ellison and Zixiao Gary Wang, who both accepted plea agreements for accusations of fraud, regulators developed the case against Bankman-Fried. Bankman-Post Fried’s made no mention of helping with government investigations.
In his post, Bankman-Fried also mentioned that previous cryptocurrency businesses have “blown up.” He made no mention of the alleged damage that three of those companies, Genesis, and Gemini—were allegedly subjected to as a result of FTX’s failure.
He had also made a number of other claims, such as the ones that FTX US were still solvent and that the liquidity crisis at Alameda was due to general market turbulence rather than any misconduct. He went on to say that FTX International and Alameda were profitable, totally fair companies.
On November 6, the former CEO of FTX referred to Zhao’s post on Binance as the culmination of a “very effective months-long PR push against FTX.” By tweeting that “FTX wrecked themselves because they plagiarized billions of dollars,” Zhao denied these accusations. After the piece, Bankman-Fried grew. The 30-year-old concluded his letter by writing, “No money was stolen.
Given that he has been hiding information regarding the functioning of his crypto empire, all of these comments seem like a wild ride.
