The disgraced founder of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX said he ‘didn’t steal funds’ and appeared to blame the boss of a rival company for its collapse.
Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, a former billionaire, is under house arrest in the US, awaiting trial on allegations that he led ‘one of the biggest financial frauds in American history’.
He is accused of stealing billions from customers to offset losses at his hedge fund Alameda Research, buy lavish properties and fund political donations.
House arrest: Sam Bankman-Fried is accused of orchestrating what officials have dubbed ‘one of the biggest financial frauds in American history’
He has denied the charges, which could see him jailed for up to 115 years. A trial is set for October 2.
In a blog post, he said he ‘certainly didn’t stash billions away’ and claimed FTX had £6.5billion in assets when he handed over control to veteran insolvency specialist John Ray in November shortly before it collapsed after uncovering a multi-billion black hole in its accounts.
‘Despite its insolvency, and despite processing roughly $5billion (£4.1billion) of withdrawals over its last few days of operation, FTX retains significant assets,’ he added.
The comments came a day after FTX said it had recovered more than £4billion worth of assets.
Bankman-Fried said FTX could have survived if it had had ‘a few weeks’ to raise cash to meet withdrawal requests.
He also attributed the collapse to mismanagement of investments at Alameda, saying he had not run the fund ‘for the past few years’.
He accused Changpeng Zhao, boss of rival Binance, of ‘a targeted attack on assets held by Alameda’.
‘No funds were stolen. Alameda lost money due to a market crash,’ he said. The claims contrast with those of former Alameda boss and Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who confessed she had knowingly engaged in ‘illegal’ business tactics.
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