The answer to whether embattled FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will appear before two congressional committees next week is playing out on Twitter.
in a early morning posts on twitter Friday, sir. Bankman-Fried said he would testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday after evading the matter for days. The hearing focused on the sudden collapse last month of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange headed by Mr. FTX. Bankman-Fried was established amid allegations of misappropriation of billions in client funds.
gentlemen. “I’m limited to what I can say, and I won’t be as helpful as I’d like to be,” Bankman-Fried, 30, said in a post on Twitter.
Since FTX and its affiliates filed for bankruptcy last month, Bankman-Fried has been holed up at his residence in the Bahamas, where FTX is based. He has given numerous media interviews in person and via Zoom in the Bahamas to talk about the collapse of the once-popular cryptocurrency trading platform.
It was unclear whether he would appear before House committees in person.
gentlemen. Bankman-Fried did not respond to a separate request from the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee to appear at the Senate meeting the next day.
In a letter sent on Wednesday, a Senate committee gave Mr. Bankman-Fried had until 5 p.m. Thursday to respond to his request to testify next Wednesday. Commission leaders issued a statement on Thursday night, saying Mr. Attorneys for Bankman-Fried failed to meet the deadline.
Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who chairs the committee, said in a letter to Mr Trump. Bankman-Fried said that if the cryptocurrency trader is unwilling to speak to the committee, he is prepared to issue a subpoena to compel him to testify.
Mr. Bankman-Fried, a spokesman, and his attorney, Mark Cohen, declined to comment on the Twitter post. Representatives for the Senate committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For the past two weeks, Mr. Bankman-Fried has been on the media tour, giving interviews to various news outlets and tweeting. He has repeatedly stated that he never intended to deceive anyone — including FTX’s estimated 1 million customers.
gentlemen. Bankman-Fried has said he was not directly involved in deal decisions for Alameda Research, the hedge fund he co-founded and owns a majority stake in. Just before FTX filed for bankruptcy, it was revealed that billions of dollars in customer funds from the exchange had apparently been moved to Alameda.
As federal prosecutors and securities regulators investigate the FTX debacle, the stakes are much greater for Mr. Bankman-Fried is more important when he testifies before congressional committees than when he talks to the media. Statements he makes to reporters do not have the same legal force as testimony before Congress.
gentlemen. Bankman-Fried is politically active, having donated about $40 million to federal campaigns and committees that primarily support Democrats, according to Federal Election Commission records.