In a statement made on Substack Tuesday, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried claimed once again that his former company FTX US “was and is solvent.”
Key Details
- SBF will be facing fraud charges in the U.S. for his involvement in the crypto exchange FTX.
- Through his substack account, the disgraced crypto entrepreneur doubled down on his claims that FTX US “was and is solvent.”
- In the same statement, SBF claimed that FTX US could still have “hundreds of millions of dollars in excess of customer balances.”
- After SBF resigned as CEO of the company, FTX filed for bankruptcy. In the bankruptcy process, referring to FTX.com and FTX US, the company said, “there is a substantial shortfall of digital assets at both.”
- SBF claimed in his statement that FTX made an incorrect count of its assets.
Why it’s news
The 30-year-old former CEO is currently on bail and under surveillance through an electronic bracelet monitoring system. SBF is set to face trial this October. He has pleaded not guilty to fraud and campaign-finance law charges.
Prosecutors allege that SBF fraudulently raised nearly $1.8 billion from various investors and used customer finances to fund personal purchases.
So far, FTX Debtors has found around $5.5 billion in liquid assets within the company. The funds are made up of $1.7 billion in cash, $3.5 billion crypto, and $300 million in securities, Bloomberg reports. Around $413 million was transferred by unauthorized third parties, FTX Debtors claim. The unauthorized transfers likely occurred during a hack just after FTX declared bankruptcy.
Backing up a bit
In the months since the dramatic collapse of one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, SBF has admitted to making mistakes but not to criminal activity.
The former CEO admitted that the company should have provided more protection for customers and focused on risk management. He also acknowledged that FTX and Alameda Research should not have been as closely connected as they were.
SBF further claimed that he “didn’t ever try to commit fraud.”