Sam Bankman-Fried’s media blitz has undoubtedly ticked off his lawyers if he has any, but it’s clear from this tour of talking to anyone who puts a microphone in his face that the guy is as clueless now as he was “running” FTX.
Has there been a less-inspiring goofball to run a billion-dollar company? The “boy genius’ label liberal politicians and media personalities gave him fit about as well as “rational thinker” for Kanye West.
Once he finally shuts his mouth, Bankman-Fried might face serious prison time.
The narrative he’s tried to spin the past two weeks is that he was just an inexperienced executive in khaki board shorts and a bad haircut. He was in over his head and didn’t know what he was doing.
The problem he will find is that being an idiot isn’t a defense for breaking the law.
At last count, over $8 billion in customer funds are gone, reportedly used to make up for the billions in losses at his hedge fund Alameda Research. Both companies are bankrupt, and the CEO who took over said the mess he inherited was far worse than the one at Enron.
His direct quote is that he’s never seen “such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.”
That quote probably won’t make it to Bankman-Fried’s Linkedin page. Well, who knows.
Bankman-Fried is going all in on his ineptitude excuse. He had no clue Alameda was in so much trouble, even though his girlfriend ran it.
Experts believe what the ex-CEO was engaging in was a fraud. Going to prison should be a much more significant concern than prepping for the following interview with a network anchor.
Reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Bankman-Fried if he was concerned about being charged and convicted.
Here’s his answer.
“I don’t think that — obviously, I don’t personally think that I have — I think the real answer is it’s not — it sounds weird to say it, but I think the real answer is it’s not what I’m focusing on. It’s — there’s going to be a time and a place for me to think about myself and my own future. But I don’t think this is it.”
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