In a collection of unpublished paperwork not too long ago uncovered by The New York Occasions, Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried extensively criticized colleagues and associates, expressing his views on the demise of FTX.
Some 250 pages of paperwork, not publicly accessible, had been initially handed to social media influencer Tiffany Fong by Bankman-Fried throughout his interval of home arrest.
The Confessions of SBF
After lamenting the truth that he was underneath home arrest and had turn into “one of the hated individuals on this planet,” Bankman-Fried went on to put blame on people linked to FTX and Alameda Analysis as he described his earlier relationships with them.
Bankman-Fried partially blamed Alameda Analysis CEO Caroline Ellison, who was additionally his romantic associate at one level, for FTX’s collapse. He wrote:
“[Ellison] frequently prevented speaking about threat administration — dodging my solutions — till it was too late … Each time that I reached out with solutions, it simply made her really feel worse. I’m positive that being exes didn’t assist.”
He wrote that if Alameda had engaged in a hedging technique underneath Ellison’s management, it “would have remained solvent and prevented all the sad story.”
Bankman-Fried additionally criticized Alameda Analysis co-CEO Sam Trabucco. He stated that Trabucco was expert in danger administration however put in minimal effort and as an alternative frolicked touring and courting. As with Ellison, he described his private relationship with Trabucco positively, detailing their earliest conferences at a math camp and attaching a photograph of an “I ❤ BF” shirt that Trabucco had bought throughout their highschool days.
Elsewhere, Bankman-Fried criticized FTX’s chapter legal professionals. In paperwork that referenced Christopher Nolan’s 2010 movie Inception, he claimed that Sullivan & Cromwell had fabricated the now-widespread narrative that he misappropriated buyer funds.
Bankman-Fried moreover described a short assembly with Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) throughout a convention in Taiwan with a celebration environment, writing:
“Tonight was an evening about booze and girls and lasers and loud, booming music … I walked by CZ a couple of extra instances, and every time he broke eye contact along with his eye sweet and embraced me: Folks had been enthusiastic about us, so much.”
Binance was not unconnected to FTX’s collapse. Following destructive protection of Alameda by CoinDesk on Nov. 2, 2023, Zhao tweeted on Nov. 6 that his agency would promote $2.1 billion of FTX-related funds. FTX then entered a liquidity disaster, and Binance introduced plans to accumulate and rescue the agency earlier than abandoning the deal by Nov. 9.
SBF paperwork should not totally public
Bankman-Fried’s unpublished paperwork quantity to 250 pages of fabric and should not publicly accessible. He initially gave the paperwork to social media influencer Tiffany Fong, who visited him whereas he was underneath home arrest.
Fong initially acquired the paperwork in January. She finally despatched one doc to a former FTX engineer, Aditya Baradwaj, who steered that Alameda’s hedging practices wouldn’t have been vital if FTX had not misused buyer funds.
Later, Fong despatched the paperwork to The New York Occasions, which referred to and quoted elements of the paperwork in its newest protection of the matter.
By the way, Bankman-Fried despatched paperwork associated to former Caroline Ellison to The New York Occasions in or previous to July 2023. His choice to share that info led to his bail revocation and present imprisonment as a result of threat of witness tampering.
