Image Courtesy: Wired.com
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, is scheduled to testify before a US House committee on Tuesday, the cryptocurrency exchange’s founder and the congressional panel announced on Friday, as regulators investigate his role in the cryptocurrency exchange’s demise.
Maxine Waters, the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, told Reuters on Thursday that she was prepared to subpoena Bankman-Fried if he did not agree to appear before the panel, which is holding a hearing as part of its investigation into FTX.
The panel said in a statement late Friday that it would hear from newly appointed FTX CEO John Ray and Bankman-Fried, FTX’s founder and former CEO, on Tuesday.
“I still do not have access to much of my data — professional or personal. So there is a limit to what I will be able to say, and I won’t be as helpful as I’d like,” Bankman-Fried said on Friday on Twitter.
“But as the committee still thinks it would be useful, I am willing to testify on the 13th,” he added.
The hybrid hearing is set to begin at 10 a.m. ET (1500 GMT) on Tuesday, according to the committee.
US authorities have requested information from FTX investors and potential investors in recent weeks, according to two sources familiar with the requests. Bankman-Fried has not been charged with any crime by prosecutors or regulators.
According to Bloomberg, US Justice Department officials met this week with FTX’s court-appointed overseers to investigate whether hundreds of millions of dollars were improperly transferred to the Bahamas, where FTX is based, around the same time the crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy in Delaware.
Reuters’ requests for comment on the report were not immediately responded to by FTX or the Justice Department.
BATTLING CRYPTO PIONEERS
After traders pulled $6 billion from the platform in three days and rival exchange Binance abandoned a rescue deal, FTX filed for bankruptcy last month, and Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO.
Reuters reported last month on the bitter rivalry between Bankman-Fried and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, who had competed for market share in the months preceding FTX’s demise.
On Friday, public tension between the two flared up again following a series of tweets by Zhao.
Zhao claimed that after Binance, an early investor in FTX, attempted to sell its stake more than a year and a half ago, Bankman-Fried launched “offensive tirades” against Binance team members.
Binance returned its stake in the company to FTX last year.
n reply, Bankman-Fried wrote: “We initiated conversations around buying you out, and we decided to do it because it was important for our business.”
“You threatened to walk at the last minute if we didn’t kick in an extra $75m,” he added. “You didn’t even have the rights to pull out as an investor unless we chose to buy you out–much of the tokens/equity were still locked.”
“Not that it matters now. You also can’t force us to sell if we don’t want to,” Zhao replied.
“There was no competition or fight, and no one won” he added further.