The reply as as to whether the embattled FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will seem earlier than two congressional committees subsequent week is being performed out on Twitter.
In an early morning post on Twitter, Mr. Bankman-Fried stated he would seem on Tuesday earlier than the Home Committee on Monetary Companies after days of being evasive on the matter. The committee listening to will deal with the sudden collapse final month of FTX, the cryptocurrency alternate that Mr. Bankman-Fried based, amid allegations of the misappropriation of billions in buyer cash.
Mr. Bankman-Fried, 30, stated in a publish on Twitter that “there’s a restrict to what I will say, and I received’t be as useful as I’d like.”
Ever since FTX and corporations related to it filed for chapter final month, Mr. Bankman-Fried has been holed up in his residential advanced within the Bahamas, the place FTX was primarily based. He has granted quite a few media interviews both in particular person within the Bahamas or by way of Zoom to speak concerning the collapse of the as soon as widespread cryptocurrency buying and selling platform.
It’s unclear if he’ll seem in particular person earlier than the Home committee.
Mr. Bankman-Fried didn’t tackle a separate request from the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and City Affairs to seem earlier than senators the next day.
In a letter despatched Wednesday, the Senate Banking Committee had given Mr. Bankman-Fried till 5 p.m. Thursday to answer a request that he testify on Dec. 14. The leaders of the Senate committee issued an announcement Thursday night that stated Mr. Bankman-Fried’s lawyer had failed adjust to that deadline.
Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio and chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, stated within the letter to Mr. Bankman-Fried that if the cryptocurrency dealer was unwilling to talk to the committee, he was ready to concern a subpoena to compel his testimony.
A spokesman for Mr. Bankman-Fried and his lawyer Mark Cohen declined to remark past the Twitter publish. Representatives for the Senate committee didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Over the previous two weeks, Mr. Bankman-Fried has been on one thing of a media tour, giving a number of interviews to varied information shops and posting messages on Twitter. He has repeatedly stated he by no means meant to defraud anybody — together with FTX’s estimated a million prospects.
Mr. Bankman-Fried has stated he was circuitously concerned in buying and selling choices at Alameda Analysis, a hedge fund he co-founded and largely owned. Simply earlier than FTX’s chapter submitting, it was revealed that billions in buyer cash on the alternate was apparently transferred to Alameda
With federal prosecutors and securities regulators investigating the collapse of FTX, the dangers are far better for Mr. Bankman-Fried in testifying earlier than a congressional committee than in speaking to the media. Statements that Mr. Bankman-Fried makes to a reporter don’t carry the identical authorized weight as testimony made earlier than Congress.
Mr. Bankman-Fried was lively in politics, having donated about $40 million to federal campaigns and committees that primarily supported Democrats, in line with Federal Election Fee information.