Sam Bankman-Fried defends himself in online post: ‘I didn’t steal funds’

FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has spoken out once again to protect himself as he awaits demo on federal prices linked to the collapse of his crypto empire, spelling out his model of what led to the platform’s downfall in what he named a “Pre -Mortem Overview.”

In a Substack write-up posted Thursday morning, Bankman-Fried blamed the implosion of FTX Global — the Bahamas-based mostly arm regarded as FTX Electronic Markets Ltd. — on a blend of market crashes, mismanagement at his hedge fund Alameda Investigation and sabotage by Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the head of FTX rival Binance.

Changpeng Zhao, founder and CEO of Binance, attends the Viva Technological know-how meeting devoted to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris on June 16, 2022. (REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Image / Reuters Pictures)

Bankman-Fried claimed that he has not “run Alameda for the previous couple of yrs,” distancing himself from the FTX sister agency he co-established though pointing to failures in 2022 that led to its downfall.

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Although Bankman-Fried did not point out them by identify in the Substack piece, Caroline Ellison and Sam Trabucco were named co-CEOs of Alameda in Oct 2021. Trabucco stepped down in August of past 12 months, leaving Ellison as the sole main government of the hedge fund at the time of its collapse in November.

Alameda Analysis CEO Caroline Ellison reportedly admitted to knowingly deceptive creditors about the company’s monetary ties to FTX. (Twitter @carolinecapital / Fox News)

Ellison is reportedly cooperating with prosecutors towards Bankman-Fried, and has pleaded guilty to various federal prices. Bankman-Fried maintains his innocence on all counts.

Bankman-Fried reiterated his recurring declare that FTX US was solvent at the time Chapter 11 bankruptcy was filed, and nowadays “stays thoroughly solvent and should be ready to return all customers’ funds.” He wrote that it is “preposterous that FTX US consumers haven’t been manufactured entire and gotten their resources back again nevertheless.”

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He claimed FTX Intercontinental however “has lots of billions of pounds of property” and that “even now, I believe that if FTX Intercontinental have been to reboot, there would be a serious likelihood of customers currently being produced considerably total.”

Bankman-Fried emphasized in Thursday’s concept, “I did not steal resources, and I unquestionably failed to stash billions absent.”

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and then-CEO of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Trade, speaks for the duration of the Institute of Intercontinental Finance once-a-year membership meeting in Washington, DC, on Oct. 13, 2022. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Photos)

According to present FTX management, the firm has recovered extra than $5 billion in liquid assets, so much. Bankman-Fried statements FTX Worldwide experienced around $8 billion in assets when it went belly-up. At its peak, the crypto trade was valued at an estimated $35 billion.

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The former CEO also took photographs at the legislation agency Sullivan & Cromwell, which represented FTX US prior to the Chapter 11 submitting and, according to Bankman-Fried, pressured the exchange into individual bankruptcy when “potent-arming and threatening” him to identify new FTX main John J. Ray III as his successor. The company is also representing FTX in its bankruptcy, with a billing price that could be as significant as $2,165 for every hour.

John Ray, CEO of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Trade, speaks through a Home Economical Products and services Committee hearing investigating the collapse of FTX in Washington, DC, on Dec. 13, 2022. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Visuals/Getty Images)

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Bankman-Fried has been significantly from quiet given that FTX filed for individual bankruptcy, and echoed many of the promises he built in the penned testimony he had planned to deliver to Congress but was unable to appear due to his arrest the day prior. He was launched from custody on a $250 million bond and is less than dwelling arrest at his parents’ residence in California. His demo has been established for Oct.