Sam Bankman-Fried says he 'didn't ever try to commit fraud' - Reuters
Speaking via video link at the New York Times' Dealbook Summit with Andrew Ross Sorkin on Wednesday, Bankman-Fried said he did not knowingly commingle customer funds on FTX with funds at his proprietary trading firm, Alameda Research."I didn't ever try to commit fraud," Bankman-Fried said in the hour-long interview, adding that he doesn't personally think he has any criminal liability.The liquidity crunch at FTX came after Bankman-Fried secretly moved $10 billion of FTX customer funds to Alameda Research, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.At least $1 billion in customer funds had vanished, the people said.
Bankman-Fried told Reuters in November the company did not "secretly transfer" but rather misread its "confusing internal labeling.".Attorney's Office in Manhattan in mid-November began investigating how FTX handled customer funds, a source with knowledge of the probe told Reuters.
Since FTX filed for bankruptcy, Bankman-Fried has distanced himself from the image he projected in media interviews and on Capitol Hill, telling a Vox reporter his advocacy for a crypto regulatory framework was "just PR" and his discussions on ethics within the industry were at least partly a front.Bankman-Fried said that Alameda had built up a substantial position on FTX and that as digital asset prices plummeted this year, Alameda became increasingly more levered to the point of no return earlier this month.For his part, Bankman-Fried said he regretted focusing on the bigger picture at FTX at the expense of risk management, which he said he paid less attention to over “the last year or two.”.