One observer stated Bankman-Fried may be hesitant to address FTX owing to the legal implications of lying under oath to the U.S. Congress.
Sam Bankman-Fried, former FTX CEO, says he won’t appear before Congress until he’s “finished learning and assessing what occurred.”
Bankman-Fried was replying to a Dec. 2 tweet from U.S. Representative Maxine Waters asking him to appear at a Dec. 13 House Committee on Financial Services hearing on “what transpired” at FTX.
In a Dec. 4 tweet, the former FTX CEO said he felt it is his “duty to testify before the committee and explain,” but only after he’s “finished learning and studying what happened.” He wasn’t “sure” it would happen before the 13th.
The community noted that his statement was inconsistent with his previous media appearances and tweets concerning FTX’s November collapse.
Blockchain Association Head of Policy and U.S. Attorney Jake Chervinsky told his 120,500 Twitter followers that Bankman-Fried was hesitant to attend the Dec. 13 hearing because “lying to Congress under oath is less enticing.”
Bankman-Fried spoke at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit on Nov. 30 to discuss FTX’s failure. He appeared on Good Morning America and Mario Nawfal’s Twitter area the next day.
On Dec. 3, Bankman-Fried left a Coffeezilla Twitter Spaces interview after 20 minutes.
