Rep. Maxine Waters, former FTX CEO Sam I appreciate Bankman-Fried (SBF) for speaking candidly about the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX. “In fact, SBF was not forthright in his arguments. He completely defrauded,” emphasized one critic.
Maxine Waters accused of thanking Sam Bankman-Fried
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, , was slammed on social media after she tweeted a thank you to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) on Friday.
Waters is leading congressional hearings on the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX beginning December 13th. This MP wrote: Your willingness to speak to the public helps your company’s customers, investors, and others. To that end, we welcome your participation in the public hearing on the 13th.
Many immediately told Mr. Waters that the former FTX CEO was a fraudster and would soon be arrested. pointed out that it should Some even compare Bankman-Fried and his FTX implosion to Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
“If you don’t arrest him, we will lose all belief that our government is even a little bit fairer,” said Bitcoin advocate Dan Held . replied to Waters.
Attorney Jake Chervinsky responded to Congressmen: Thank you Waters for holding the hearing on the 13th, and we look forward to a substantial fact-finding on what happened at FTX. He added :
I believe the fact-finding will show that the SBF was not really candid in his arguments. He totally cheated.
But Waters’ tweets are not surprising to many, given his good relationship with Bankman-Fried. At the end of last year’s congressional hearings, she was even seen blowing kisses on her SBF. Others point out that a former FTX executive donated his $300,000 to Waters committee members.
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX went bankrupt on his November 11th and filed for bankruptcy. An estimated 1 million customers and investors lost billions of dollars in this meltdown. FTX is currently under investigation by authorities in multiple jurisdictions. In the United States, the Department of Justice (DOJ), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other regulators are investigating exchanges for alleged mishandling of customer funds.
Hogan & Hogan partner Jeremy Hogan told Waters:
You are the Chairman (or (committee itself) subpoenas him to testify. That is House Regulation XI Article 2(m). But I’m sure you already knew that.
Bankman-Fried was his second-largest contributor to the Democratic Party from 2021 through his 22-year campaign. According to Opensecrets, he donated his $39,884,256 to the Democratic Party before his FTX imploded and had to file for bankruptcy. However, Elon Musk, his CEO of Tesla and his Twitter chief, thinks his SBF’s actual support for Democrats will exceed his $1 billion.
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