Sam Bankman-Fried is living a 'life of delusion' by claiming he didn't steal, new FTX boss says

Jennifer Sor
2 min read
2
John Ray
John Ray, the new CEO of FTXNathan Howard / Stringer

  • Sam Bankman-Fried is living a "life of delusion," FTX boss John Ray III said in a letter.

  • Ray slammed SBF for his claims he didn't steal from the collapsed crypto exchange.

  • FTX was only able to recover some funds by cutting off Bankman-Fried, Ray said.

Sam Bankman-Fried's claim that he didn't steal from FTX customers because some may recover their funds is a "delusion," CEO John Ray III said.

In a letter filed to a New York District Court on Wednesday, Ray slammed Bankman-Fried for his view that FTX was fully solvent at the time of bankruptcy.

SBF did in fact steal from customers, Ray said, adding that the only reason some may get recover their assets was because they axed Bankman-Fried from the company in the first place.

"Mr. Bankman-Fried continues to live a life of delusion. The 'business' he left on November 11, 2022 was neither solvent nor safe. Vast sums of money were stolen by Mr. Bankman-Fried, and he was rightly convicted by a jury of his peers," Ray wrote.

Ray, who took over FTX when the crypto exchange collapsed in late 2022, has been a loud critic of Bankman-Fried's conduct. The exchange didn't have an in-house accounting department and had virtually "no record keeping whatsoever," Ray said in a 2022 hearing. FTX was also known to use QuickBooks for its accounting needs, a program generally suited for small businesses rather than complex multibillion-dollar crypto firms.

"The harm was vast. The remorse is nonexistent. Effective altruism, at least as lived by Samuel Bankman-Fried, was a lie," Ray added in the letter.

Bankman-Fried was a proponent of "effective altruism" prior to FTX's collapse, at one point vowing to donate 99% of his yearly earnings to charity.

But even leaders of the effective altruism movement have shunned SBF since FTX's downfall. Will MacAskill, the cofounder of the Centre for Effective Altruism, tweeted soon after FTX's bankruptcy he felt "self-hatred" for falling for Bankman-Fried's "deception."

Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven counts of financial crimes in his dealings with FTX, including fraud and money laundering. His sentencing is scheduled for March 28. Prosecutors last week called on the judge to impose a prison term of 40-50 years.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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