​Ex-CEO of FTX to testify before US Congress on December 13

What’s new? Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and former CEO of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, is ready to testify before the US House Committee on Financial Services. According to messages on Twitter, the testimony at the hearing could take place on December 13. At the same time, Bankman-Fried stressed that he does not currently have all of the information related to the company.

1) I still do not have access to much of my data -- professional or personal. So there is a limit to what I will be able to say, and I won't be as helpful as I'd like.But as the committee still thinks it would be useful, I am willing to testify on the 13th. https://t.co/KR34BsNaG1 — SBF (@SBF_FTX) December 9, 2022

What other statements have been made? In messages with Congressional officials, Bankman-Fried emphasized that he still does not have access to some of his professional and personal data, so he cannot report anything definitive and be as helpful as he would like.

Nevertheless, he will try during the hearing to share information about FTX US’s solvency and the company’s US clients, ways to compensate users internationally, the reasons for the exchange’s collapse, and his own mistakes.

In the last message, Bankman-Fried also said that he considered himself a model CEO who would not “become lazy or disconnected.” And when he did, it led to disruptive results.

3) I had thought of myself as a model CEO, who wouldn't become lazy or disconnected.Which made it that much more destructive when I did.I'm sorry. Hopefully people can learn from the difference between who I was and who I could have been. — SBF (@SBF_FTX) December 9, 2022

In turn, Committee officials noted that based on the information in Bankman-Fried’s recent interviews, and given his status as the founder of the exchange, he had enough information to testify.

.@SBF_FTX,Based on your role as CEO and your media interviews over the past few weeks, it’s clear to us that the information you have thus far is sufficient for testimony. (1/3) https://t.co/YUVVjOkC40 — Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) December 5, 2022

Earlier, the media reported that Changpeng Zhao, head of crypto exchange Binance, urged Bankman-Fried the day before FTX’s bankruptcy to stop and not cause more damage to the industry. “The more damage you do now, the more jail time,” Zhao wrote to the FTX founder in a group chat with other crypto company executives.

Bankman-Fried noted in a recent interview that FTX’s new CEO, John J. Ray, and his team do not communicate with him, do not respond to any messages, and are not interested in what he has to say.