Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, has largely refuted the accusations made against him in a “pre-mortem overview” of the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange.
Bankman-Fried claimed in a post on January 12 on Substack that FTX US had been “fully solvent” at the time the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with about $350 million in cash on hand, distinguishing between businesses under the FTX umbrella. Before the company’s bankruptcy, he claimed that Sullivan & Crowell and the FTX US general counsel pressured him to appoint John Ray as the CEO of FTX, disrupting an apparent plan to make impacted users “substantially whole.”
Even now, I think there’s a chance that customers would be made essentially whole if FTX International were to restart,” said Bankman-Fried.
FTX user funds were allegedly used by Alameda, but Bankman-Fried denied any involvement:
“I didn’t steal money, and I most definitely didn’t hide billions. Nearly all of my resources could be used to support FTX customers. For instance, if the Chapter 11 team would accept my D&O legal expense indemnification, I have offered to donate nearly all of my shares in Robinhood to customers.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX) January 12, 2023
