New allegations against Sam Bankman-Fried

Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) testimony on the FTX case will begin tomorrow, December 13, in the US House Committee on Financial Services. In addition to the exchange’s founder, the company’s current CEO, John Ray, is also invited. As in his role in the Enron accounting scandal, the 63-year-old should provide clarity. After a number of rumors and revelations about the FTX scandal, this is still sorely needed.

And this despite the fact that Bankman-Fried, who was responsible for the stock market collapse, has been anything but quiet since then. So he appeared recently at the New York Times DealBook Summitto answer questions about the background of the scandal and to apologize.

Although he said little with many words, Bankman-Fried believes he can convince the crypto community and the wider public of his innocence. He claims to have acted negligently, but not criminally, when his stock market went down. However, he continues to avoid the important questions. And new ones appear to be added every day.

Threats and Tether Attack

SBF’s feud with Binance boss Changpeng Zhao (CZ) started the stock market collapse. This settled into one last week Brawl on Twitter away. Zhao had doubts about FTX long before the collapse, calling SBF “a scammer.” When Binance finally backed out of the crypto exchange bailout in November, Bankman-Fried reportedly threatened employees at the competing exchange.

According to reports from the Wall Street Journal Sam Bankman-Fried then tried to destabilize the stablecoin USD-Tether (USDT) by attacking its parity, possibly to profit from price fluctuations. In a signal group of the leading stock exchange bosses, in which ex-Kraken boss Jesse Powell and Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino are said to have been members, CZ then confronted the unleashed FTX founder and asked him to stop the attack. However, Bankman-Fried denied the incident to the WSJ.

Instead, SBF sees only lies in his nemesis’ claims. According to Bankman-Fried, Zhao was blackmailing and uncompromising in the takeover negotiations. This is another reason why FTX wants to have decided to continue without Binance.

Terra Luna and 3AC collapse

Meanwhile answered Zhu Su, co-founder of failed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC). He is recently convinced that his company did not fall victim to his own mismanagement, but to a “hunt” by a competitor. And sees connections to Bankman Fried’s activities at the time of the 3AC sinking.

Su’s claims followed Terra founder Do Kwon’s own speculation, who appears to think Bankman-Fried does too a roll in collapse the UST and LUNA tokens could have played. The New York Times recently reported that some US authorities are currently Market manipulation by SBF determine.

In fact, it’s supposed to be one of the Report commissioned by Luna Foundation Guard reportedly provided evidence of a sell-off in Terra’s UST stablecoin from FTX. Supposedly, FTX then bet on a price drop as a result of the destabilization and made big profits.

While possible, one wonders how plausible such an attack was. Because the trading company Alameda Research, which is connected to FTX, is said to have suffered massive losses in the crypto crash that followed. Ultimately, these may also have contributed to the FTX downfall.

It is possible that this is just a protective claim on the part of Su and Kwon to distract from their own machinations. At least that’s how Sam Bankman-Fried sees it, who advised the 3AC founder to stick to his business.

New company, new luck?

Meanwhile, the failed FTX founder may be interested in starting a new business, like him to the BBC explained in an interview. With new income, he could imagine compensating for damaged FTX customers. So he wants to “try everything to do exactly that”. He has the “obligation to the FTX customers” to deliver them well, says SBF.

It remains to be seen whether the victims still have a spark of trust in Bankman-Fried. According to estimates, they could assert claims of between ten and $50 billion against FTX. “Estimates” is the keyword here, as the true extent of the scandal has yet to be determined.

Between interviews and public appearances, Sam Bankman-Fried at least finds the time to be subpoenaed to testify at the Treasury Committee hearing — if it’s “of any use,” he questions on Twitter.

Because he also lacks “access to parts [seiner] Information”. There is therefore a “limit to what [er] say,” Bankman-Fried wrote to committee chair Maxine Waters. It remains to be seen whether he can continue to deny the (possible) allegations there.

Meanwhile, the FTX founder “only occasionally muses at night” about jail time, as he explains to the BBC. Instead, he mostly focuses on things that are not out of his control, says SBF. But what he ever had control over might soon become apparent.