FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to appear before US Congress

This coming Tuesday, December 13, the founder of the collapsed FTX cryptocurrency exchange, Sam Bankman-Freed, will appear before the US Congress. This was announced on Twitter by the US Congress Committee on Financial Services, this information was confirmed by Mr. Bankman-Fried himself.

Congressional hearings on the FTX case began on December 1. Loud bankruptcy FTX, which was recently valued at $32 billion, happened in November after it became aware of its liquidity problems – now many are calling the exchange a pyramid scheme. Sam Bankman-Fried has previously expressed reluctance to attend congressional hearings. He agreed to this only after the chairman of the financial services committee, Maxine Watres, pointed out that if he refused, he could be subpoenaed. Mr. Bankman-Fried did not specify whether he would attend the hearing in person or via video link: after the collapse of FTX, he is in the Bahamas, where the exchange was registered.

Sam Bankman-Fried wrote on Twitter that he does not currently have access to much of his data, but he will try to be useful and tell what, in his opinion, led the exchange to collapse, about his own failures and mistakes. Previously, he has repeatedly denied his guilt in the misuse of customer funds and fraud, while recognizing the underestimation of risks and the mistakes made. On the same day as the founder of FTX, its new CEO, John Ray, who was recently appointed to lead its restructuring, will appear before Congress.

Yana Rozhdestvenskaya