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Sam Bankman-Fried said he has “no idea” what the status of his personal finances is after FTX’s collapse.
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“I had $100,000 in my bank account last time I checked,” the former CEO told Axios.
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Bankman-Fried once had a net worth of $26 billion.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange that once had a new value of $26 billion, is down to his last $100,000 after the collapse of FTX, he told Axios on Monday.
The investor and founder of FTX took a massive hit in early November when most of his net worth fell from $15.6 billion to $1 billion in a single day following news that the crypto exchange needed a bailout has.
Bankman-Fried told Axios he had “no idea” what the state of his personal finances was after the crash.” May I say a negative number?” he told the outlet. “I mean, I have no idea. I don’t know. I had $100,000 in my bank account last time I checked.”
Bankman-Fried said “everything” he had was tied up in the now-failed company, making his financial situation “complicated”.
FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO on Nov. 11, after the company failed to secure a bailout following an intense weeklong liquidity crunch. Reuters reported on the same day that FTX transferred billions of dollars of client funds to Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice are investigating the collapse of FTX. Bankman-Fried was also reportedly questioned by Bahamian police on November 12.
Bankman-Fried has since apologized for the spectacular collapse of FTX, citing a combination of higher-than-expected leverage on FTX’s books and high customer withdrawals as contributing factors.
Bankman-Fried told Axios that regulation and proper oversight may have prevented the rapid collapse of FTX. But he eventually admitted his role in the fiasco.
“I wish I was more careful … I obviously regret it a lot. I focused on volume, rather than positions for balances,” he told the outlet. “I should have been more responsible, and I should have been more aware of what was going on.”
Bankman-Fried’s finances, lifestyle and sponsorships came under intense scrutiny amid the collapse of FTX. While he was known for a simple lifestyle, including cruising around in a Toyota Corolla and practicing effective altruism, he also channeled money into high-profile corporate sponsorships, including naming rights to the Miami Heat’s arena.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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