Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried will testify before Congress on the $32-billion cryptocurrency exchange’s demise. Bankman-Fried will speak before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, December 13 in a session titled “Investigating the Collapse of FTX, Part 1.”
John Ray, FTX’s new CEO who is managing the business through bankruptcy, will also testify. After originally refusing the committee’s request, Bankman-Fried stated in a series of tweets that he is “ready to testify.”
“I still don’t have access to a lot of my professional and personal data. So I won’t be able to say as much as I’d like, and I won’t be as helpful as I’d like “Bankman-Fried wrote. “However, if the committee still believes it would be beneficial, I am willing to testify on the 13th.”
Bankman-Fried stated that he will attempt to “shine light” on concerns concerning FTX’s US solvency, what he believes caused the crash, and his “personal mistakes.”
“I had seen myself as a model CEO who would not get lazy or detached,” Bankman-Fried wrote on Twitter. “Which made it all the more devastating when I did it. I apologize. People can hopefully learn from the contrast between who I was and who I could have been.”
During Bankman-initial Fried’s refusal to testify before the committee, committee chairperson Maxine Waters, D-Calif., tweeted to him: “As you are aware, the failure of FTX has injured over a million individuals. Your testimony would be important not only to members of Congress but also to the American people.”
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed interest in hearing from Bankman-Fried following the failure of his two companies, FTX, and the hedge fund Alameda Research, as well as the misuse of customer cash.
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-North Carolina, who will chair the committee in the next Congress, stated that it is “critical that we hold bad actors accountable so that decent players may utilize technology to construct a more inclusive financial system.”
The Senate Banking Committee’s leader, Democrat Sherrod Brown, has demanded that Bankman-Fried appear on December 14 to answer “major outstanding issues” regarding how consumers were treated after the companies’ collapse.
It’s uncertain whether Bankman-Fried will testify before the committee. Brown, along with Republican ranking member Sen. Pat Toomey, said they will seek a subpoena to compel him to testify on Dec. 14 if he does not cooperate freely.
“You must account for the failure of both organisations, which was caused, at least in part, by the clear misuse of client funds and wiped out billions of dollars due to over a million creditors,” Brown told Bankman-Fried.
Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sheldon Whitehouse have asked for a criminal inquiry of Bankman-Fried based on “disturbing claims of fraud and unlawful behaviour.” In an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, Bankman-Fried denied knowing “that there was any inappropriate use of customer monies.”
“I should have been on top of this, and I feel terrible and remorseful that I wasn’t. Many persons were injured. And that is entirely my fault “He stated.
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