‘I didn’t try to commit fraud’: FTX boss denies withdrawing personal money from exchange before collapse
The former billionaire boss of collapsed crypto exchange FTX has denied committing fraud.
Sam Bankman-Fried, once hailed as the ‘king of crypto’ and estimated to have a net worth of £21bn, said: “I had $100,000 in my bank account the last time I checked. .”
He denied taking any personal money from the exchange and said he did not deliberately mislead investors about the state of FTX before its collapse.
Denial: Sam Bankman-Fried denied taking personal money from the exchange and said he did not deliberately mislead investors about the state of FTX before its collapse
“I never tried to commit fraud,” he told The New York Times, as thousands of people were left with no savings.
He told US broadcaster ABC the incident was “very different” from Bernie Madoff’s 2008 Ponzi scheme which defrauded clients of £53billion.
Bankman-Fried resigned as head of FTX on November 11 when withdrawals left him strapped for cash, leading to bankruptcy.
Allegations have circulated that he ran it as a ‘personal fiefdom’ while spending £250million on the property.
Around 1 million creditors face losses of billions of pounds, including around 80,000 Britons.
