The Senate Banking Committee set a deadline of December 8 at 5 p.m. ET for Sam Bankman-Fried to respond to the request.
Sam Bankman-Fried, Crypto’s number one public enemy, has missed a crucial deadline to confirm his attendance at an upcoming Senate Committee hearing.
The former FTX CEO missed a deadline of Thursday, December 8, at 5 p.m. ET, to respond to a Senate Banking Committee request that he testify at the Committee meeting on December 14. This has opened the door to a congressional subpoena.
Sherrod Brown, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and Ranking Member Senator Pat Toomey issued a statement on the request on December 8.
“FTX’s demise has caused real financial harm to consumers, and the consequences have spread to other parts of the crypto industry.” “The American people deserve answers about Sam Bankman-FTX Fried’s misconduct,” they said, before adding:
“The Committee has asked him to testify at our upcoming hearing on FTX’s demise, and we will consider further action if he does not comply.”
The hearing, titled “Crypto Crash: Why the FTX Bubble Burst and the Harm to Consumers,” will be webcast on December 14, according to the official Committee website.
So far, two witnesses have been confirmed to attend the hearing: Hilary J. Allen, professor of law at American University Washington College of Law, and actor and author Ben McKenzie Schenkkan.
Professor Allen is an academic whose research focuses on the impact of new financial technologies on financial system stability. Ben McKenzie is an anti-crypto actor-turned-commentator who starred as a troubled adolescent on “The O.C.” in the United States.
In addition to the Senate Banking Committee hearing on December 14, Bankman-Fried has been asked to attend a separate hearing on December 13 with the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services
Bankman-Fried was invited to the hearing by Congresswoman Maxine Waters via a Twitter post, but he apparently declined the invitation on Dec. 5, stating that he wasn’t sure what would happen by the hearing date, “but when it does, I will testify.”
Waters responded on December 8 by stating that “a subpoena is definitely on the table” if Bankman-Fried fails to testify voluntarily at the hearing.
The demise of SBF’s FTX empire has triggered a flood of condemnation from US lawmakers and regulators, threatening to drown the fledgling crypto asset industry.
