Sam Bankman-Fried expresses regret over declaring bankruptcy

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, has expressed sincere regret over last week’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, calling it his “biggest single fuckup.”

A wide range of questions were reportedly addressed by Bankman-Fried in a lengthy interview with VOX that was published on November 16.

These included inquiries about the November 11 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, his opinions on regulators and ethics, how FTX and Alameda “gambled with customer money,” and the FTX hack.

According to screenshots of a conversation between Sam Bankman-Fried and VOX reporter Kelsey Piper on Twitter, the former CEO of FTX claimed that while he had made a number of errors, the biggest one was following advice and declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

SBF claimed that everything would be “about 70% fixed right now” and that “withdrawals would be opening up in a month with customers fully whole” if he hadn’t filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, adding:

“But instead I filed, and the people in charge of it are trying to burn it all to the ground out of shame”

Bankman-Fried reportedly requested $8 billion in emergency funding from investors after acknowledging a “liquidity crunch” on November 8 and even offered his own wealth to “make customers and investors whole.”

Bankman-Fried responded that he still had two weeks to obtain the $8 billion, which is “basically all that matters for the rest of my life,” in response to the question of what was next for him.

However, SBF “has no ongoing role at [FTX], FTX US, or Alameda Research Ltd. and does not speak on their behalf,” according to a statement released by FTX CEO and chief restructuring officer John Ray on November 16.

In response to questions about other subjects covered during the interview, Bankman-Fried stated that his advocacy for regulations was “just PR,” adding, “Fuck regulators, they make everything worse, they don’t protect customers at all.”

Bankman-Fried said it was “either an ex-employee, or malware on an ex-computer,” employee’s and that the money being taken out of FTX was indeed being stolen.

In a since-deleted tweet, the former CEO stood by his assertion that FTX has never invested client assets, saying it “was factually accurate” because Alameda was the organization handling the investments.