FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, claimed during an interview on Wednesday that he never tried to commit fraud against anyone at the now-bankrupt company.
The company filed for bankruptcy earlier this month after customers discovered that firms controlled by Bankman-Fried and his associates were allegedly fraudulently intertwined, triggering a liquidity crisis as customers hurried to withdraw funds. A number of individual users and institutional clients still have as much as $8 billion remaining with the company.
“I didn’t ever try to commit fraud on anyone,” Bankman-Fried said during an interview with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin at the Dealbook Summit. “I saw it as a thriving business and I was shocked by what happened this month.”
“What are your lawyers telling you right now?” Sorkin asked. “Are they suggesting it’s a good idea for you to be speaking?”
“No, they’re very much not,” he responded. “The time that I really knew there was a problem was November 6. When we looked at that, there was a potential serious problem.”
When asked if he was in the Bahamas because he believes that he can’t leave, SBF responded by claiming that he runs the company in the Bahamas and that he believes that organizations around the world might still “want” his help.
Watch:
In his first live interview since the crypto firm he founded collapsed, Sam Bankman-Fried said he had “made a lot of mistakes” and “didn’t ever try to commit fraud on anyone.” Watch his conversation with @andrewrsorkin live: https://t.co/Zq5v4GdS5A pic.twitter.com/bRRqjwnVo0
— DealBook (@dealbook) November 30, 2022
“How concerned are you about criminal liability at this point?” Sorkin asked.
“So, I don’t think that, I mean, obviously I don’t, I don’t personally think that I have, you know–, but I think the real answer is it’s not, sounds weird to say but, but I think the real answer is that’s not what I’m focusing on,” SBF answered. “It’s, there’s gonna be a time and a place for me to sort of think about myself and my own future, but I don’t think this is it.”
“Like, right now, I mean, look, I’ve had a bad month,” SBF continued as the crowd erupted in laughter. “This has not been fun for me.”
SBF said he was focused on doing everything he could to help out all the millions of people that were hurt by his actions.
