Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), former CEO of FTX, published a Substack Newsletter on January 12, 2023, the first post being entitled “FTX Pre-Mortem Overview.” In this post, SBF claims that “the extreme, swift, and targeted crash caused by the CEO of Binance has left Alameda insolvent.” The blog post does not mention the allegations of his former colleagues, former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang. The disgraced former FTX executive also conducted a one-on-one interview with Pac News reporter Theodore Schleifer at his Palo Alto home.
Former FTX CEO fights fraud charges, maintains innocence in new Substack post
FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has become more vocal recently since his arrest and initial appearance before a judge in the Southern District of New York. on January 12, 2023, SBF published a “SBF’s Substack” newsletter and published hisfirst postabout the downfall of FTX and Alameda Research, the quantitative trading firm he founded in 2019. In his first blog post, SBF claims he did not steal client funds.
– SBF (@SBF_FTX) Jan 12, 2023
Former CEO of FTX writes “I did not steal funds and certainly did not hide billions” SBF also emphasized that he “did not run Alameda for the past several years.” He said that the fall of FTX and Alameda was due to three factors: the expansion of Alameda’s balance sheet and Alameda’s “inability to adequately hedge its market exposure.” Additionally, SBF believes the final nail in the coffin of the FTX was hammered by Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao. In a substack blog post, SBF states.
In November 2022, an extreme, swift, and targeted crash caused by Binance’s CEO plunged Alameda into insolvency.
Much of SBF’s Substack blog post resembles an earlier interview he gave prior to his arrest; compared to what the FTX co-founder said during a media tour in mid-November 2022, there is little new information in the blog post; SBF “is not a not stealing funds,” the former FTX executive insists, but does not address allegations that his former colleagues, former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang, reported financial misconduct and confusing FTX client funds with Alameda Research beginning in 2019.
SBF reaches out to new CEO, but remains isolated and lonely
SBF also noted that the exchange is still solvent after the transfer of FTX US to John J. Ray III.” SBF commented in his blog post that “it is ridiculous that FTX US users have not yet received their funds back in full. The disgraced former FTX CEO also spoke with Puck News reporterabout the deal with new FTX CEO Ray Theodore
Schleifer notes that “there are not many real people for [SBF] to talk to anymore,” but the interview does not mention the accusations by Ellison and Wang; in Puck’s interview, both colleagues “betrayed [SBF]” and FTX ‘s engineering director, briefly mentions that “[Nishad Singh] is expected to do the same.”
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