In a recent interview with Forbes, Sam Bankman-Fried stated that Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) conned him.
The disgraced former CEO of FTX Exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), has been on a publicity tour for the last several weeks. SBF said that Changpeng Zhao manipulated him in a recent interview with Forbes’ Steven Ehrlich.
A hearing with the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services has been planned for Tuesday, and this interview comes the day before. Sam Bankman-Fried said he was afraid of the paparazzi and hence would not fly to the United States to testify in person.
Shortly after the interview, SBF was arrested by U.S. authorities on allegations of fraud and money laundering.
In many interviews, FTX’s creator has admitted to being distracted. His recent interview with Forbes included the line, “I have learnt what happens when I lose attention over a number of significant things.”
Business Insider claims that while presenting to Sequoia Capital, Sam Bankman-Fried was really playing League of Legends on his phone. This is consistent with SBF’s assertion that he was careless with his time and attention. After the fall of FTX, he revealed on Monday that he had been using Twitter for gaming purposes.
Sam Bankman-Fried claims that he has been given multi-billion dollar cash from unproven financial sources. He will not, however, reveal the identities of the possible investors.
He said, “I had many multi-billion dollar financing requests, including several after the crisis, all of which seemed very serious. It came from a different group than our regular backers.
So that he may put things right, he plans to launch a whole new company. When asked what his position would be with the new investment proposals, SBF said that the backers assumed he would remain active in the business.
Many of the investors, I believe, expected me to remain actively engaged in the business, providing assistance and driving innovation.
Until recently, Binance’s main rival was FTX, the world’s second-largest exchange. With Changpeng Zhao’s announcement that Binance was selling its FTX token (FTT) ownership holding, the decline of FTX may have accelerated.
Sam confirmed his belief that CZ framed him when questioned by the presenter.
Although I lack absolute certainty, I suspect that he played me, and that he played me effectively, on the CZ front. He probably fared better than he expected to, in the sense that he didn’t anticipate this result. I believe he anticipated damage, but not quite this much. I can only speculate that he is content, but I really have no idea. Over the last several months, he has played the part well. More than I had anticipated, his strategy had clearly taken much time and thought. It was solidly built and, by all accounts, quite effective.
Sam Bankman-Fried
Following Binance’s decision to withdraw from its investment in FTX, the two founders engaged in a heated Twitter dispute. However, according to Changpeng Zhao, ” There was never any kind of rivalry or struggle.” Given that Sam won’t be present at the hearing in person, do you think he’ll change his tone from his online chats in preparation for it?
