Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has indicated that he is willing to testify at a US Senate hearing on the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
Bankman-Fried controversially missed the deadline to respond to the Senate Banking Committee’s request to appear and testify during a hearing focused on the FTX bankruptcy earlier this week. Although the possibility of a congressional subpoena was on the table, the embattled ex-CEO has offered in a series of tweets posted on December 9.
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.
But as the committee still thinks it would be useful, I am willing to testify on the 13th. https://t.co/KR34BsNaG1
—SBF (@SBF_FTX) December 9, 2022
1) I still don’t have access to a lot of my data, professional or personal. So there’s a limit to what I can say and I won’t be as helpful as I’d like.
But since the committee still thinks it would be useful, I’m willing to testify on the 13th.
Bankman-Fried thus responded to a thread of tweets from Congresswoman Maxine Waters, chair of the Financial Services Committee, who argued that her recent interviews with various media outlets showed that she had “sufficient information to testify.”
Highlighting the fact that FTX had affected more than a million people, Waters implored Bankman-Fried to testify, as his knowledge would be “meaningful” to members of Congress and “critical” to the American people.
.@SBF_FTX,
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. (1/3) https://t.co/YUVVjOkC40
—Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) December 5, 2022
Based on your role as CEO and your interviews with the media over the past few weeks, it is clear to us that the information you have thus far is sufficient for testimony.
Bankman-Fried’s belated response on Twitter came four days after Waters’ request. The former director of FTX and Alameda Research said his ability to provide answers would be limited, citing lack of access to professional and personal data.
He added that he would try to provide information and views on the creditworthiness of FTX US and US clients, the possible avenues to “return value to users internationally,” which led to the collapse of the exchange and its “own failures.”
Bankman-Fried and the mainstream media have received criticism from the broader cryptocurrency community for portraying the former CEO as a victim of the debacle.
Bankman-Fried tried to calm users on Twitter by highlighting shortcomings in their management of the now-defunct company, which has left investors penniless and without answers:
“I had considered myself a model CEO who would not get lazy or disengaged. Which made it that much more destructive when I did it.”
Bankman-Fried said she hoped people could learn the difference between “who I was and who I might have been,” in what appears to be an effort to win more sympathy as pressure from the US government mounts.
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