Apologize and try to explain how the sinking happened. Interrogates as part of a conference of New York Times, Sam Bankman-Fried, the former boss of now bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, said he was “deeply sorry for what happened”.
“I was the managing director of FTX, which meant that no matter what happened, I had an obligation to safeguard the interests of shareholders and customers”admitted the ex-leader during his first public interview since the failure of the company.
Caught in a wind of panic that had prompted users to attempt to withdraw their funds en masse from the platform, FTX initially suspended withdrawals, before being forced into bankruptcy on November 11.
“I clearly made a lot of mistakes, things I would give anything to correct today”continued the thirties, dressed in his usual dark t-shirt.
Sam Bankman-Fried is suspected of having used, with collaborators, funds deposited on the platform to carry out speculative financial transactions with his other company, Alameda Research. If proven, these facts could lead to criminal prosecution.
More than 1 billion dollars not found
According to wall street journal, at the time of the bankruptcy filing, the sums taken, without express authorization, by Alameda Research and coming from accounts of FTX customers reached approximately 10 billion dollars (9.6 billion euros). Several American media have reported that more than 1 billion dollars of this total is today untraceable.
“I did not seek to commit fraud against anyone”assured the entrepreneur. “I did not try to mix the funds” and to use money belonging to customers to carry out, without their knowledge, risky investments, hammered Sam Bankman-Fried, in duplex video from the Bahamas, where the headquarters of FTX is located and where he still resides. .
During the interview, Sam Bankman-Fried appeared overwhelmed by events and seemed to have only a very partial view of the underside of FTX’s failure. “I was not running Alameda”he said, even though he was the main shareholder. “I didn’t know the size of their position”that is to say the sum borrowed from FTX, assured this graduate in physics from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Sam Bankman-Fried’s successor, John Ray III, in mid-November castigated FTX’s management and described a company with concentrated control “in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially corrupt individuals”. This is a case ” unprecedented “added Mr. Ray, who nevertheless presided in the past over the ordering of several large bankrupt groups, in particular the energy broker Enron – often considered emblematic in this area.
His lawyers advise him not to speak
Asked about a possible passage in front of the justice, Sam Bankman-Fried explained that he does not ” [concentrait] not on it”, adding that his lawyers had advised him against speaking publicly. He said he was more interested in“try to do everything [son] possible to help » investors and platform customers.
By far the most prominent personality in the world of cryptocurrencies, Sam Bankman-Fried embodied for some the future of the sector, especially since he said he was in favor of more regulation. A time credited with a fortune estimated at 26 billion dollars, entirely based on the valuation of FTX and Alameda Research, the young man lost everything with the bankruptcy of his platform.
“A lot of what we did was a distraction, [qui nous a éloignés d’un] incredibly important subject, on which we totally failed: the risks”admitted Sam Bankman-Fried. “Risk management, risks related to client investments or conflicts of interest”he detailed.
The FTX setbacks have brutally shaken the cryptocurrency universe and caused several platforms to suspend customer withdrawals. On Monday, it was the specialist in cryptocurrency loans BlockFi which announced its bankruptcy filing.
The sequence revealed – like the one that followed the implosion of the digital currency Terra in the spring – the interconnection of a number of platforms, which lent funds to each other often without sufficient guarantees.