{"id":1805409,"date":"2023-01-14T06:06:20","date_gmt":"2023-01-14T11:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1805409"},"modified":"2023-01-14T06:06:48","modified_gmt":"2023-01-14T11:06:48","slug":"sam-bankman-fried-issues-first-response-to-ftx-case-says-he-didnt-steal-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sam-bankman-fried-issues-first-response-to-ftx-case-says-he-didnt-steal-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Bankman-Fried Issues First Response to FTX Case, Says He Didn&#8217;t Steal Funds"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsam-bankman-fried-issues-first-response-to-ftx-case-says-he-didnt-steal-funds%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1805409&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p>The founder and former CEO <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-ftx\">FTX<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-sam-bankman-fried\">Sam Bankman-Fried<\/a>In his first statement after his arrest in the Bahamas, he promised customers that they would get their money back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t steal funds, and I certainly didn\u2019t stash billions away,\u201d In a Jan. 12th Statement, Bankman-Fried stated <a href=\"https:\/\/sambf.substack.com\/p\/ftx-pre-mortem-overview\">On his Substack blog<\/a>\u00a0Titled \u201cFTX Pre-Mortem Overview.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo funds were stolen,\u201d he claimed, as he presented a timeline of events leading to FTX\u2019s downfall in November on his blog.<\/p>\n<p>After pleading guilty to the charges, the former crypto boss made his first detailed statements.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-criminal-charges\">Criminal charges<\/a> filed\u00a0against him in federal court last month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-h26idz\">He stated that there was a good chance that millions of FTX customers would be able to get their money back.\u00a0 \u201cvery substantial\u201d  \u201cremains potentially available.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Feds Continue With Trial Against FTX Ex-Top Executives<\/h2>\n<p>Eight criminal charges have been brought against Bankman Fried by federal prosecutors, and additional civil charges have been brought by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-h26idz\">Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York has accused Bankman Fried of presided over the collapse in \u201cone of the\u00a0biggest financial frauds\u00a0in American history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-h26idz\">Federal officials accuse Bankman-Fried and his former colleagues of siphoning off billions of dollars of customers\u2019 assets from FTX and spending it on luxury properties, venture investments, political contributions, or funneling it into his hedge fund Alameda Research.<\/p>\n<p>Bankman-Fried posted a $250 million bail and is currently under house arrest at his parents\u2019 home in Palo Alto, California, while he awaits his trial set\u00a0for October.<\/p>\n<p>He continues to deny all claims that he defrauded investors and noted that he even lacks access to the passwords to FTX\u2019s systems.<\/p>\n<h2>Bankman-Fried Accuses Binance CEO of His Downfall<\/h2>\n<p class=\"dcr-h26idz\">Bankman-Fried blamed a combination of market crashes,\u00a0mismanagement at his hedge fund Alameda Research, and\u00a0sabotage by his main rival, Changpeng \u201cCZ\u201d Zhao, CEO of Binance&#8217;s crypto exchange.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver the course of 2021, Alameda\u2019s balance sheet grew to roughly $100 billion of net asset value, $8 billion of net borrowing (leverage), and $7 billion of liquidity on hand.\u201d Bankman-Fried.<\/p>\n<p>Alameda did not anticipate the fall in cryptocurrency markets, and the rise of interest rates. The main problem caused the collapse of the company&#8217;s value by causing it 80 percent loss and eventual collapse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlameda failed to sufficiently hedge its market exposure.\u00a0 Over the course of 2022, a series of large broad market crashes came\u2013in stocks and in crypto\u2013leading to a ~80 percent decrease in the market value of its assets,\u201d He stated.<\/p>\n<p>He later said that a fatal crash precipitated by the CEO of Binance led to the hedge fund\u2019s insolvency, and he accused Zhao of maliciously planning a \u201ctargeted attack on assets held by Alameda.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bankman-Fried blamed Zhao\u2019s \u201cextremely effective months-long PR campaign against FTX\u201d His \u201cfateful tweet\u201d that initiated a run on FTX\u2019s FTT token, which caused the final meltdown of the exchange.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-h26idz\">\u201cAs part of Binance\u2019s exit from FTX equity last year, Binance received roughly $2.1 billion equivalent in cash (BUSD and FTT). Due to recent revelations that have came to light, we have decided to liquidate any remaining FTT on our books,\u201d\u00a0Zhao said in his fatal\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cz_binance\/status\/1589283421704290306?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">tweet.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlameda\u2019s assets get hit, again and again and again,\u201d According to the ex-FTX chief,<\/p>\n<h2>An ex-CEO distances himself from two former top lieutenants<\/h2>\n<p>Bankman-Fried claimed that he wasn&#8217;t involved in the alleged theft. \u201cAlameda for the past few years,\u201d He also distanced himself from the FTX hedge-fund spinoff that he co-founded alongside his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison.<\/p>\n<p>Ellison and Sam Trabucco were named co-CEOs of Alameda by Bankman-Fried in October 2021, but she was the sole one in charge\u00a0of the hedge fund when it collapsed in November after Trabucco stepped down in August.<\/p>\n<p>FTX co-founder Zixiao \u201cGary\u201d Wang and\u00a0Ellison have reportedly\u00a0pled guilty to several federal charges and are now cooperating with prosecutors to testify against Bankman-Fried, who maintains his innocence against all eight counts against him.<\/p>\n<p>Bankman-Fried claimed that \u201cAlameda\u2019s contagion spread to FTX and other places,\u201d Just as Three Arrows failed, so did exchanges such as Voyager and Genesis, BlockFi, BlockFi, Gemini.<\/p>\n<p>The SEC however, in its complaint, stated that he was in fact, \u201cthe ultimate decision-maker\u201d Alameda and could never pass on the blame.<\/p>\n<h2>Bankman-Fried said that there was still money that could be accounted for<\/h2>\n<p>Meanwhile, the ex-CEO reiterated his long-standing claim that FTX U.S. at the time it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy was still solvent. \u201cremains fully solvent and should be able to return all customers\u2019 funds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He stated that it was \u201cridiculous that FTX U.S. users haven\u2019t been made whole and gotten their funds back yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At its peak, the crypto exchange was worth an estimated $35 billion.<\/p>\n<p>Bankman-Fried stated, FTX International is still \u201chas many billions of dollars of assets\u201d And that \u201ceven now, I believe that if FTX International were to reboot, there would be a real possibility of customers being made substantially whole.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He wrote that FTX International had around $8 billion in assets when it filed for bankruptcy, but the crypto exchange\u2019s new court-appointed leadership said that they were only able to recover just over $5 billion in liquid assets.<\/p>\n<p>Bankman-Fried said that he received an audit report that confirmed his analysis of the firm\u2019s financial standing, but he failed to note if this was a full audit by a Big 4 accounting firm.<\/p>\n<p>He also allegedly implied that more funding could be used to offset billions of dollars in losses, but with no associated liabilities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were billions of dollars of funding offers when Mr. Ray took over, and more than $4 billion that came in after,\u201d He said so.<\/p>\n<h2>Bankman-Fried attacks Bankruptcy Lawyers for mismanaging his Efforts To Save FTX<\/h2>\n<p>Reports say that the former CEO is ripping into law firm Sullivan &#038; Cromwell which represented FTX U.S. prior to its Chapter 11 filing.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/sam-bankman-fried-says-ftxs-law-firm-pushed-for-bankruptcy-11670969128\"> The Wall Street Journal.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bankman-Fried accused law firm of pushing FTX into bankruptcy \u201cstrong-arming and threatening\u201d He will name John J. Ray III, a bankruptcy specialist, as his new CEO.<\/p>\n<p>He argued that FTX\u2019s holdings could have weathered the storm if it had a few more weeks, but that the attorneys unnecessarily pressured them into bankruptcy prematurely.<\/p>\n<p>Ray claimed that the collapse of the crypto exchange was due to an \u201cunprecedented and complete failure of corporate controls,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2022\/nov\/17\/ftx-enron-crypto-collapse-john-ray-unprecedented\">The Guardian.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-h26idz\">James Bromley was an attorney who handles bankruptcies for Sullivan &#038; Cromwell. He also stated during a court hearing, &#8220;A&#8230;&#8221; \u201csubstantial amount\u201d of FTX Group\u2019s assets \u201chave either been\u00a0stolen or are missing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-h26idz\">Bankman-Fried wrote that he intended to deliver his side of the story to a House committee hearing that was scheduled for Dec. 13,\u00a0but was unable to appear due to\u00a0his arrest the day before.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-h26idz\">\u201cUnfortunately, the DoJ [Department of Justice] moved to arrest me the night before, preempting my testimony with an entirely different news cycle,\u201d He noted.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-bryan-jung\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ttl7daySGw_WEB_BrianJung.jpg\" alt=\"Bryan Jung\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p>Bryan S. Jung, a New York City native and resident, has a background in politics as well as the legal industry. He graduated from Binghamton University.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The founder and former CEO FTX, Sam Bankman-FriedIn his first statement after his arrest in the Bahamas, he promised customers that they would get their money back. \u201cI didn\u2019t steal funds, and I certainly didn\u2019t stash billions away,\u201d In a Jan. 12th Statement, Bankman-Fried stated On his Substack blog\u00a0Titled \u201cFTX Pre-Mortem Overview.\u201d \u201cNo funds were &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1695376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[7176,5458,5375,4352,7334,4543,4065,3819,4115,6912,7830],"class_list":["post-1805409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-bankman-fried","tag-bongino","tag-case","tag-didnt","tag-ftx","tag-funds","tag-issues","tag-report","tag-response","tag-sam","tag-steal"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1805409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1695376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1805409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1805409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1805409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}