Disgraced former FTX CEO and Democrat mega donor Sam Bankman-Fried said on Tuesday he is “haunted” by his management decisions, which led to the collapse of the digital currency exchange and billions of dollars of customers and investors’ funds lost.
“It’s most of what I think about each day,” Bankman-Fried said in his first post-sentencing interview. He admitted that the collapse of FTX was the result of several “bad decisions” he made in 2022.
“I’ve heard and seen the despair, frustration and sense of betrayal from thousands of customers; they deserve to be paid in full, at current price. That could and should have happened in November 2022, and it could and should happen today. It’s excruciating to see them waiting, day after day,” he continued.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (second on left) is led away in handcuffs by officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force in Nassau, Bahamas, on December 13, 2022. (MARIO DUNCANSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced Bankman-Fried to 25 years jail after he was convicted of five counts of conspiracy and two counts of wire fraud. Kaplan also found that Bankman-Fried committed perjury during his trial testimony when he testified that he had no knowledge that Alameda Research, FTX’s sister company and hedge fund, had spent FTX customer deposits before the fall of 2022. Kaplan also committed witness tampering when he communicated with former FTX general counsel.
Bankman-Fried’s legal team has long claimed that customers have lost “zero” dollars despite an estimated $11 billion in customer funds and investor losses due to Bankman-Fried’s fraud.
Despite his fraud, Bankman-Fried claims he never wanted to hurt anyone.
“I’m haunted, every day, by what was lost. I never intended to hurt anyone or take anyone’s money. But I was the CEO of FTX, I was responsible for what happened to the company, and when you’re responsible it doesn’t matter why it goes bad,” Bankman-Fried said.
“I’d give anything to be able to help repair even part of the damage. I’m doing what I can from prison, but it’s deeply frustrating not to be able to do more,” the former FTX CEO added.
Current FTX CEO John Ray explained in a letter to Kaplan that Bankman-Fried’s victims may not be able to achieve full restitution due to Bankman-Fried’s fraud.
Breitbart News’s Lucas Nolan reported:
The letter also refutes Bankman-Fried’s claim that FTX is “solvent and safe,” with Ray pointing out that vast sums of money were stolen by the disgraced founder and converted into various assets, including Bahamas real estate, cryptocurrencies, and speculative ventures. Ray highlights that while some assets have been recovered through the efforts of dedicated professionals, many have not, such as bribes to Chinese officials and investments for which Bankman-Fried grossly overpaid. The CEO states that the harm was “vast” and that Bankman-Fried’s remorse is “nonexistent.”
According to Ray, Bankman-Fried falsely claimed that FTX customers should “get back all their money” and that he could help recover more value than the team behind the Chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions. However, Ray argues that these petitions were necessary to stop the damage caused by Bankman-Fried’s crimes and that the recovery rates would have been substantially lower without them. The CEO also notes that some victims are “extremely unhappy” about stolen bitcoins, as prices have recently reached all-time highs, and they believe they should receive something closer to today’s value.
“Mr. Bankman-Fried’s victims will never be returned to the same economic position they would have been in today absent his colossal fraud,” Ray wrote.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
