‘I’ve Had a Bad Month’: Disgraced FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Speaks Publicly About Stunning Crypto Empire Collapse

FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried denied intentionally committing fraud in his first public appearance since his cryptocurrency empire imploded amid accusations of misleading investors.

Bankman-Fried spoke with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit, where they focused on FTX’s filing for bankruptcy after the crypto exchange was once valued at $32 billion. The CEO began by admitting, “I made a lot of mistakes,” and that he failed to uphold his responsibility to his investors, customers, and regulators.

The fall of FTX has come under public and legal scrutiny amid news that billions of customer funds went missing during the collapse and that many investors were reportedly unable to withdraw their funds while it happened. Questions have also been raised about whether Bankman-Fried commingled FTX’s customer funds with those of his trading firm, Alameda Research.

“I didn’t ever try to commit fraud on anyone,” Bankman-Fried insisted. “I was excited about the prospects of FTX a month ago. I saw it as a thriving, growing business. I was shocked by what happened this month, and reconstructing it, there are things I wish I’d done differently.”

The conversation continued with Bankman-Fried admitting, “I’ve had a bad month,” that he was down to his last credit card with $100,000 left on it. He went on to say that he didn’t take time to manage risk for FTX and that he underestimated the impact when there was a run on the exchange.

Watch above.

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