Bankman-Fried denies trying to commit fraud at fallen FTX empire
BNN Bloomberg
Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of the bankrupt FTX crypto empire, denied trying to perpetrate a fraud while admitting to many errors at the helm of the company.
“I made a lot of mistakes,” the 30-year-old said Wednesday by video link at the New York Times DealBook Summit. “There are things I would give anything to be able to do over again. I didn’t ever try to commit fraud on anyone.”
He was speaking in an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin, a columnist for the news organization, who said Bankman-Fried was joining from the Bahamas.
Bankman-Fried’s participation has sparked controversy given the damaging fallout from the collapse of the FTX exchange and sister trading house Alameda Research. Among the outstanding questions are how Bahamas-based FTX ended up with an US$8 billion hole in its balance sheet and whether it mishandled customer funds, amid reports that FTX lent client money to Alameda.