Sam Bankman-Fried, once called the JP Morgan of cryptocurrency, was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday in the FTX cryptocurrency platform collapse case. A day after his arrest, Reuters reported that the FTX founder claimed in a draft testimony to the US Congress that he was pressured into selecting John Ray as the CEO of the company.
What's happening? After the spectacular collapse of crypto exchange platform FTX and its sister company Alameda Research in early November, US authorities are investigating possible fraud by the company management.
Bahamian Police said this in their statement about the arrest:
The testimony: Reuters reported that a draft of his testimony claimed he was pressured to nominate John Ray as FTX's CEO and immediately after Ray received "potential funding offer for billions of dollars". Remember, before this SBF had struggled to raise funds.
Context: FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11 as the company unsuccessfully tried to raise money to keep the firm from collapse as traders rushed to withdraw nearly $6 billion within just 72 hours.
SBF and his close aides who served as the core members of FTX are all under scrutiny for the movement of a large sum of money that was taken out of the cryptoexchange platform, leading to its collapse. Their lifestyle, sponsorships and more are also under the radar. According to one report, SBF says when he last checked he was left with some $100,000 in his bank account. His net worth before the FTX collapse was pegged at nearly $26 billion.
Sam Bankman-Fried says he never tried to commit fraud but accepted that he regretted not being careful enough.