Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has said he is willing to testify at a U.S. Senate hearing. This hearing is about the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX.
Missed deadline
Initially, SBF missed the deadline to respond to the Senate Bench Committee’s request. This request was that they would like SBF to appear to testify at a hearing regarding the bankruptcy of FTX. While the possibility of a congressional subpoena was on the table, the beleaguered former CEO offered himself in a series of tweets published Dec. 9.
SBF responded to a series of tweets from Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the chair of the Financial Services Committee. She claimed that his recent interviews with a number of media houses provided evidence that he had enough information for testimony. SBF itself indicated that it did not yet have access to a large part of its data.
Over million users affected
The crash of FTX has affected over a million people worldwide. SBF was therefore almost begged by several individuals to testify, given that his knowledge can be very meaningful to members of Congress and crucial to the American people, according to Maxine Waters. Waters also posted about this on Twitter.
SBF’s response came 4 days after Waters’ request. The former head of FTX and Alameda Research said he would be limited in his ability to provide answers, citing a lack of access to professional and personal data. He added that he would seek information and insights on the solvency of FTX.US and US clients, possible ways to “return international value to users,” leading to the stock market’s collapse and its “own shortcomings’.
In fact, SBF has absorbed the vast majority of criticism from the wider crypto community about the bankruptcy. Initially, SBF tried to reassure all FTX users by highlighting its shortcomings in its business operations. In an effort to elicit more sympathy, he concluded by saying, among other things:
I had seen myself as a model CEO who wouldn’t get lazy or aloof. That made it all the more destructive when I did.
