Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX, denies “improper use” of customer funds

On December 1, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried ‘SBF’ and George Stephanopoulos appeared on Good Morning America.

SBF insisted during the interview that FTX was not a “Ponzi scheme,” but rather “a real business.”

The former CEO also denied any knowledge of FTX customer deposits being used to pay Alameda Research’s creditors, as Alameda’s CEO Caroline Ellison allegedly claimed. He claimed he was unaware of “any improper use of customer funds.”

Bankman-Fried also admitted to not putting any time or effort into risk management on FTX.

He revealed, “There is something maybe even deeply wrong there, which was, I wasn’t even trying. Like, I wasn’t spending any time or effort trying to manage risk on FTX and that was obviously a mistake.”

Furthermore, he added,

“If I had been spending an hour a day thinking about risk management on FTX, I don’t think that would have happened. And I don’t feel good about that.”

Following the demise of FTX, the former billionaire is said to have lost his fortune. He claimed to have only $100,000 in his bank account and one ATM card, despite having an estimated net worth of $20 billion.

Moving forward, Bankman-Fried stated that his primary focus will be on navigating regulatory and legal processes, as well as “trying to focus on what I can do going forward to be helpful.”

Hours after the interview aired, the former CEO took to Twitter to elaborate on statements made the night before on The New York Times’ DealBook Summit, which aired live on November 30.

According to the former CEO, “FTX US was solvent at the time of filing for bankruptcy.”

SBF insisted during the interview that at the time of filing a chapter 11 bankruptcy, he was “fairly sure FTX US was solvent, and that all US customers could be made whole.”