Forbes Publishes Transcript of SBF's Planned Testimony (forbes.com) 84
Longtime Slashdot reader UnanimousCoward writes: Forbes has published a transcript of SBF's planned testimony as well as a synopsis which, of course, will not happen now. At no point does he admit fraudulent behavior and does not address the (multi-)billion dollar loans that helped contribute to the flywheel Ponzi scheme. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested yesterday by the Royal Bahamas Police Force. He was set to testify virtually before the House Financial Services Committee about the exchange's collapse on Tuesday (today).
Here are the key takeaways from SBF's draft testimony, as highlighted by Forbes: - Bankman-Fried is being ghosted by FTX's court-appointed CEO John Ray.
- Bankman-Fried says that FTX.US general counsel and former Sullivan & Cromwell partner, Ryne Miller, put intense pressure on Bankman-Fried and others to rush into filing for Chapter 11.
- Bankman-Fried believes that John Ray and law firms managing the bankruptcy, including Sullivan and Cromwell, are dusting off the Enron playbook in an effort to reap enormous fees from FTX's bankruptcy.
- The Chapter 11 team is not playing nice with foreign regulators.
- Bankman-Fried thinks that John Ray and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court is bullying the Bahamian government and overstepping its rights as the main domicile for FTX International.
- Bankman-Fried devotes seven pages to a section he calls "Misstatements," detailing instances where John Ray and team are disseminating false and inaccurate information about the companies he created.
- FTX did not have a risk management team.
- Bankman-Fried claims that there are signed Letters of Intent (LOIs) from prospective investors that could recapitalize the exchange.
- Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao orchestrated a negative public relations campaign to bring down FTX.
- Having eliminated FTX as its largest global competitor, Binance is now averaging approximately 70% of global cryptocurrency volume.
- Bankman-Fried wants to set the record straight on false reports of hard partying at FTX and on his own drug usage. He says he has never been drunk in his life, and has been on an antidepressant for the last decade.
Here are the key takeaways from SBF's draft testimony, as highlighted by Forbes: - Bankman-Fried is being ghosted by FTX's court-appointed CEO John Ray.
- Bankman-Fried says that FTX.US general counsel and former Sullivan & Cromwell partner, Ryne Miller, put intense pressure on Bankman-Fried and others to rush into filing for Chapter 11.
- Bankman-Fried believes that John Ray and law firms managing the bankruptcy, including Sullivan and Cromwell, are dusting off the Enron playbook in an effort to reap enormous fees from FTX's bankruptcy.
- The Chapter 11 team is not playing nice with foreign regulators.
- Bankman-Fried thinks that John Ray and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court is bullying the Bahamian government and overstepping its rights as the main domicile for FTX International.
- Bankman-Fried devotes seven pages to a section he calls "Misstatements," detailing instances where John Ray and team are disseminating false and inaccurate information about the companies he created.
- FTX did not have a risk management team.
- Bankman-Fried claims that there are signed Letters of Intent (LOIs) from prospective investors that could recapitalize the exchange.
- Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao orchestrated a negative public relations campaign to bring down FTX.
- Having eliminated FTX as its largest global competitor, Binance is now averaging approximately 70% of global cryptocurrency volume.
- Bankman-Fried wants to set the record straight on false reports of hard partying at FTX and on his own drug usage. He says he has never been drunk in his life, and has been on an antidepressant for the last decade.
Summary: (Score:5, Informative)
Not my fault. I blame everybody else.
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This is a AI generated response, isn't it?
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It looks like the overarching regulator has been asleep at the wheel since Enron.
There was no "overarching regulator". The whole lure of crypto was "here are investments that don't have government regulators, so you can invest like a cowboy and make a killing!"
... Lets not pick on one fellow who had a bit of bad luck.
...and was got caught [slashdot.org] stealing.
Planned testimony by ChatGPT (Score:2)
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Also, they're bullying me!
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Not my fault. I blame everybody else.
Literally not at all what he said or implied. But I'm sure that made up story in your head you're replying to makes for some interesting reading.
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He would likely be at fault even if all this other stuff is true, but some of the other stuff he's claiming would still be illegal actions by parties not himself.
I'm not saying I believe any of it, I haven't looked into it at all, I'm just saying that I can easily believe that there are other malicious parties who may be partly responsible. It's hard to believe this dildo could have accomplished all this fuckery alone.
Remember: this is NOT testimony (Score:2)
I think he's been clever here. Testimony is under penalty of perjury, but this is NOT his testimony... it's a claim of what he would have said.
So lies in this document will largely be presumed to be true, because of the presumption that this is what he would have said under oath.
But he didn't.
"SBF"? So that douche is now an acronym? (Score:2)
Re: "SBF"? So that douche is now an acronym? (Score:2)
It stands for "Shitty Best Friend."
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I was thinking more like "Some Butt-Fucker".
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But I heard some conspiracy theories here (Score:1)
Maybe the transcript of his planned testimony has been edited by the said people. And he has been instructed to not say anything about it.
On a side note, my tinfoil hat has not been wo
Re:But I heard some conspiracy theories here (Score:5, Informative)
I heard some conspiracy theories here yesterday that it was mighty convenient that SBF was arrested right before his testimony to Congress. Presumably he was going to name names. And now that he has been arrested, he can no longer do that. He has forever been shut up. Some powerful people do not want him to speak.
Other people are not convinced: The One FTX Conspiracy Theory That Is Too Dumb to Be True [slate.com]
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This is the same site that pushed that the biden laptop was false, that trump russia collusion was happening, and that covid did not come from china and to even consider that was racist.
Re:But I heard some conspiracy theories here (Score:5, Insightful)
Slate thinks the Hunter's laptop thing is dumb, because it is really dumb.
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The story gives two reasons they think their straw-man version of the conspiracy theory is dumb:
Democrats saved SBF from getting arrested by arresting him, and they saved him from questioning from members of Congress by ⦠having him extradited and brought up on multiple felonies, for which he will face an actual trial unless he pleads guilty to at least some of the charges ahead of time.
Except the conspiracy theory isn't that Democrats saved him from getting arrested. It's that they saved him from seriously incriminating himself during his testimony, since he wouldn't be protected by Miranda or various other rules about self-incrimination. Secondarily, the theory postulates that Democrats saved powerful Democrats from SBF giving answers that would supposedly embarrass powerful Democrats.
So, yes
Re: But I heard some conspiracy theories here (Score:2)
It's that they saved him from seriously incriminating himself during his testimony, since he wouldn't be protected by Miranda or various other rules about self-incrimination.
This is no different than him testifying at his own trial, where he is also free to self-incriminate as much as he wants.
This conspiracy theory makes zero sense, he'd have a lawyer present in either case. There are no rules protecting you from self-incrimination if you volunteer to do it.
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The optics and perceptions are very different for the two kinds of testimony. Once federal charges get filed, that is when most people will realize "shit just got real" -- if they think they're making an sales pitch to a friendly crowd, they'll have a very different mindset than answering questions from a hostile attorney from the witness stand.
SBF's public statements so far have shown two things: that he has still been in sales pitch mode, and that either he has lousy lawyers or he's ignoring them. For exa [cnn.com]
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^^THIS^^
What Slate does not get is that nobody on the right thinks anyone on the left cares about SBF, as to if he ends up shooting himself twice in the back, in prison, or back with his buddies swilling liquor and anti-depresents on the beach.
What some think they care about is that he might know things that are a embarrassing, or criminal about THEM. For example that a the time their organizations accepted his campaign donations they reasonable should have know he was engaged in fraud or say they agree to
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^^THIS^^
Except, now that we've seen [forbes.com] the testimony, we see that it's all self-justification and complaining how unfair the bankruptcy process was. Not naming names.
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Congressional testimony involves swearing to tell the truth [1], and answering questions [2], not just delivering a speech about how it's not your fault.
[1]- Except for Democrats from the executive branch taking before a Democrat-controlled Congress, in which case they don't have to make that oath.
[2]- Likewise.
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In general, congressional testimony involves a show staged by congress to showcase to the public stuff they want the public to see.
In old Perry Mason reruns, the perp hadn't planned on naming confederates during testimony, but clever questioning by the prosecutor inveigles them to reveal the truth. In actual congressional hearings, no, you don't get sudden revelations "OK, I you got me! I admit it, the congressman did it!" during questioning.
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He could still blow the lid on Dems, but actually being arrested on federal charges should make him a lot more hesitant to run his mouth and make public statements like "I unknowingly commingled funds. [...] I was frankly surprised by how big Alamedaâ(TM)s position was, which points to another failure of oversight on my part and failure to appoint someone to be chiefly in charge of that."
On the other hand [twitter.com], he has a track record of blowing off advice of counsel:
I told my lawyers to go fuck themselves. I don't think they know what they are talking about.
So, yes, if you assume SBF is dumber than
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Are the Democrats going to prevent a judge and jury from hearing evidence?
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Even the New York Post were embarrassed.
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It's dumb because all the evidence will come out in court. You can't hide this stuff. Conspiracy theories however always claim weird stuff. Biden laptop is not false, but it's also a non-story really. Nothing whatsoever on the laptop could take down the president, at most it's just embarrassing. I know, more weird conspiracy theory stuff.
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What's with the ad that covers half my screen so I can only read the article via a sliver of my screen
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Presumably he was going to name names.
Obviously not Hillary Clinton or he would have been dead already :-)
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I heard some conspiracy theories here yesterday that it was mighty convenient that SBF was arrested right before his testimony to Congress.
It seems pretty obvious that he was going to be indicted. I assume they indicted him as quickly as they could get the case put together.
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Some powerful people do not want him to speak.
As a registered Democrat voter and MAP I can tell you with certainty those names are the usual suspects: TRUMP, PUTIN, MUSK and ANDREW TATE.
Case closed. I don't need to see any evidence or hear any testimony and you can NOT change my mind. I'll bet my 9 year old girl friends life on it.
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It is rather dumb that put out an arrest order when he was out of the country and the following day he would have in the USA and would have been giving sworn testimony. If he had been allowed to speak and then arrested they could have make use of all that testimony. Then you throw in that the new york district that had him arrested is normally known for being rather slow and some of this conspiracy theory looks more reasonable than epstein not killing himself.
He was never going to appear before Congress. Or step foot in the USA. Video link from the Bahamas. [nypost.com]
Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried said Monday he will testify remotely rather than in person before Congress because he’s “quite overbooked” and has security concerns about “paparazzi” if he were to travel to Washington, DC.
Lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee are preparing to grill Bankman-Fried on Tuesday over the swift collapse of the digital currency exchange that was once worth tens of billions of dollars.
During Monday’s interview with the “Unusual Whales” platform that was conducted on Twitter Spaces, Bankman-Fried confirmed he will testify — but through a Zoom link from his luxury residence in the Bahamas.
Of course he had "security concerns" - including being arrested upon setting foot in the US.
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He was NEVER going to "testify before Congress." He just wanted to hand-wave by video link from his hidey-hole in the Bahamas. With no penalties for perjury, because after all, he's hiding out in the Bahamas, and the US can't possible extradite him ... joke's on him now.
Re: But I heard some conspiracy theories here (Score:2)
Presumably he was going to name names. And now that he has been arrested, he can no longer do that. He has forever been shut up.
That makes zero sense. If there is anything he could say to Congress that wouldn't dig a deeper hole he can say it at his trial for reduced charges. If it would dig a deeper hole for him, I'm sorry, do you think he would have immunity? Why?
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"He has forever been shut up."
Demonstrably he has not been shut up. In fact, the defining feature of this whole business is that he *won't* shut up, even with his lawyers screaming at him "STOP TALKING!"
Schemes (Score:3)
that helped contribute to the flywheel Ponzi scheme.
A flywheel is not a Ponzi scheme. It's mis-valuing assets and using that to borrow money.
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Didn't you get the message? Any misdeed related to crypto is automatically a Ponzi scheme
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That actually makes a lot of sense. Based on the theory that everything about recent crypto is based in ignorance.
Alternative link (Score:2)
For those who want to avoid the Forbes popups here is a link to the 18 page .pdf
https://assets.bwbx.io/documen... [assets.bwbx.io]
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For those who want to avoid the Forbes popups here is a link to the 18 page .pdf
https://assets.bwbx.io/documen... [assets.bwbx.io]
If you don't know how to avoid the popups and ads on Forbes webpages...turn in your GEEK CARD NOW.
Here, let me fix (translate) that for you (Score:5, Interesting)
- Bankman-Fried is being ghosted by FTX's court-appointed CEO John Ray.
All good and proper. Doesn't want to be seen as possibly collaborating with the piss-ant.
- Bankman-Fried says that FTX.US general counsel and former Sullivan & Cromwell partner, Ryne Miller, put intense pressure on Bankman-Fried and others to rush into filing for Chapter 11.
Well, you ARE bankrupt. A 1.8 billion hole in your accounts pretty much says it all.
- Bankman-Fried believes that John Ray and law firms managing the bankruptcy, including Sullivan and Cromwell, are dusting off the Enron playbook in an effort to reap enormous fees from FTX's bankruptcy.
"Don't look at the fact that I'm the one responsible for the financial fraud in the first case ..."
- The Chapter 11 team is not playing nice with foreign regulators.
Got any proof? After all, the foreign goverment DID hand you over for extradition. Don't hear their regulators complaining.
- Bankman-Fried thinks that John Ray and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court is bullying the Bahamian government and overstepping its rights as the main domicile for FTX International.
Remember - he claimed this before the Bahamian government handed him over to the US for fraud. Same as if he had committed crimes in pretty much any country he'd have been extradited to that country. Guy seems not to understand extradition treaties and thought he was safe.
- Bankman-Fried devotes seven pages to a section he calls "Misstatements," detailing instances where John Ray and team are disseminating false and inaccurate information about the companies he created.
Well, now you'll gat your day in court. What's the problem here? Oh, you were hiding from the courts in the Bahamas. So sad, too bad, sux 2 B U.
- FTX did not have a risk management team.
And whose fault is that? Yours. As you yourself admitted in the previous point, YOU created these companies. You decided not to have a real risk management team. So what's your point?
- Bankman-Fried claims that there are signed Letters of Intent (LOIs) from prospective investors that could recapitalize the exchange.
So why haven't you produced them? This is the internet - email is a thing.
- Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao orchestrated a negative public relations campaign to bring down FTX.
Revealing that YOU had a $1.8 billion hole in your balance sheet is your own fault. That makes the negative publicity your responsibility.
- Having eliminated FTX as its largest global competitor, Binance is now averaging approximately 70% of global cryptocurrency volume.
If you had played it straight, that could have been you. Awwww.
- Bankman-Fried wants to set the record straight on false reports of hard partying at FTX and on his own drug usage. He says he has never been drunk in his life, and has been on an antidepressant for the last decade.
Setting up the "I was of unsound mind" defense? More like the "I was an arrogant prick who thought I could get away with it" mind-set.
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- Bankman-Fried wants to set the record straight on false reports of hard partying at FTX and on his own drug usage. He says he has never been drunk in his life, and has been on an antidepressant for the last decade.
Setting up the "I was of unsound mind" defense? More like the "I was an arrogant prick who thought I could get away with it" mind-set.
More to the point it seems to be trying to answer a different question than the one that was asked.
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Got any proof?
Generally I favor asking for evidence, but if you're going to ask for it here, you really ought to read the entire document to see if the evidence you seek is sin there.
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> - Bankman-Fried claims that there are signed Letters of Intent (LOIs) from prospective investors that could recapitalize the exchange.
>
> So why haven't you produced them? This is the internet - email is a thing.
I read the guy liked using emojis to approve stuff and those texts were configured to auto delete after a certain time. I'm not saying there were any LOIs, but if there were any they would have been deleted based on his unconventional/non-existent business practices.
Le mot juste (Score:1)
Re: Le mot juste (Score:2)
Legally he needs to STFU (Score:4, Insightful)
Disclaimer: I don't like this guy, I think he's a sleazeball, moron, and con artist.
He needs to Lawyer Up and Shut the Fuck Up. He shouldn't be grandstanding and yelling "it was the one-armed man!" to everybody, especially to congress. If he is as intelligent as his fanbois say he is and has any funds set aside he'll hire a good Lawyer and let that guy speak for him. I think his being arrested will finally start laying out what happened and when without all the rumors but frankly, I don't think he has a nervous twitching leg to stand on.
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I understand his own lawyers have adviced him to keep quiet and not give interviews or say a word in public.
Same thing from other random lawyers on the internet, who have stated that his lawyers are probably pissed cos he has been running around openning his mouth to the media recently.
If he doesn't want to follow legal advice, does not matter if he hires the best or worst lawyers around.
The other criminals. (Score:2)
All of the comments in this thread, and all of the commentary in other media, seem to be of one mind in lambasting the arrogance, greed, and illegality of what this guy did - and rightly so.
But, this all misses the other half of the "two to tango" equation. Those who deposited billions in equity with this guy are guilty of criminal stupidity.
I feel bad for them to a point, that they are losing their fortunes, but they should all know the principles of "you play, you pay".
Even if crypto is all the rage, and
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Who feels sorry for the rich people who lost money?
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Don't forget that the small percentage of people losing this type of money who are both that rich and that stupid are actually just the excuse that the much larger portion of them uses to get away with laundering money for organized crime. If you don't buy into SBF's plea of total incompetence don't buy into theirs either.
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I assume FTX "investors" came from all walks of life. Som
So in summary (Score:2)
Just a few comments... (Score:2)
- Bankman-Fried is being ghosted by FTX's court-appointed CEO John Ray.
As he should be.
- Bankman-Fried says that FTX.US general counsel and former Sullivan & Cromwell partner, Ryne Miller, put intense pressure on Bankman-Fried and others to rush into filing for Chapter 11.
As they should have.
- Bankman-Fried believes that John Ray and law firms managing the bankruptcy, including Sullivan and Cromwell, are dusting off the Enron playbook in an effort to reap enormous fees from FTX's bankruptcy.
Quite likely. The only sure thing about legal proceedings is: the lawyers always get paid.
- The Chapter 11 team is not playing nice with foreign regulators.
The US government never plays nice with other governments. While the Chapter 11 teams may not directly be government, you can be sure that the regulators are heavily involved.
- Bankman-Fried thinks that John Ray and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court is bullying the Bahamian government and overstepping its rights as the main domicile for FTX International.
See previous comment: The US government never plays nice with other governments.
- Bankman-Fried devotes seven pages to a section he calls "Misstatements," detailing instances where John Ray and team are disseminating false and inaccurate information about the companies he created.
I'm not going to even attempt to review that. However, when it comes to "misstatements", I don't think he has a lot of room to comp
This genius (Score:2)
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is surprisingly bad at his job. Like knowing when to SFTU and let an expensive lawyer do the talking.
The lawyer he hired is the same one who got Ghislaine Maxwell [wikipedia.org] , who got 20 years in jail. Not the best reference ...
And of course, there's this:
In August 2022, her former lawyers sued Maxwell, alleging that she failed to pay $878,000 in legal fees.
It would be really nice if that bit of history repeats itself.
Not a _signed_ letter of intent! (Score:2)
"been on an antidepressant for the last decade" (Score:2)
Cocaine is an antidepressant, right?
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Cocaine is an antidepressant, right?
Apparently spending OPM (other people's money) is an even bigger anti-depressant. The only problem is the crash after the high.
It'll be so tragic when he commits suicide (Score:2)
And of course it'll be nothing but russian disinformation to suggest that there might be something suspicious about every single camera and witness conveniently going away or glitching out, with no backups.
Money laundering scam? (Score:1)
Some have alleged this is much bigger than SBF.
$100 billion is US tax payer dollars have gone to the Ukraine. The US government refuses to give an accounting as to where the money was spent.
It has been alleged that much of the money went to FTX crypto, and then to certain US politicians. Mostly democrats, but some republicans.
We know for sure that SBF is the second biggest democrat contributor, after George Soros.
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If that kind of statement is supposed to pass as evidence, then you're either far too gullible or a liar.
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If that kind of statement is supposed to pass as evidence, then you're either far too gullible or a liar.
GP is or was an ardent Trump supporter, so I am going with "far too gullible".
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Transcript of planned testimony (Score:1)
The witnesses know the questions that will be asked.
The congressmen know that the witnesses know what the questions will be.
The witnesses know that the congressmen know that the witnesses know what the questions will be.
And yet the hearings are still held. Just for the "under oath" part.
Retarded son of the elite (Score:2)
It's pretty obvious this guy is an utter moron who used his family connections to scam investors.
Not having a risk management group = prima facie evidence of fraudulent intent.
Seriously, fraternities have risk management officers these days....