It has been weeks since the FTX scandal came to the public, and many news outlets are yet to get a full SBF interview. Sam Bankman-Fried was the CEO of the failed crypto exchange FTX, which made away with millions of dollars belonging to their users.
The FTX scandal is an issue that involved a lack of transparency and corruption within a cryptocurrency exchange that many people trusted with their funds. Sam Bankman-Fried left the company and is currently under surveillance as many federal agencies are probing the former CEO of FTX.
Tiffany Fong, a media personality, was one of the few persons who had the chance to have a full SBF interview, and the two discussed many issues relating to the FTX scandal. The major highlights of the interview are when Sam Bankman-Fried talks about how he managed the failed crypto exchange, donations to the Democratic party, and their dealings with Alameda.
Sam Bankman-Fried Speaks on Running FTX
The first question Tiffany Fong asked Sam Bankman-Fried was about running FTX and the allegations that he had a backdoor with which he communicated with Alameda.
However, from the audio interview, Sam Bankman-Fried was very pissed off by that question, saying that such an allegation was false. "I don’t even know how to code is the honest, embarrassing answer," SBF added. He also said he didn't send or receive money from Alameda without altering the company records. He also denied having a backdoor that had secret dealings in the company.
When Tiffany Fong asked him if using FTT as collateral was a good decision, he said it was, although things did not go as planned. Sam Bankman-Fried told the media personality that "the correlation of assets getting dumped and the bank running at the same time was the problem."
When Fong asked how he could describe the collapse of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried said it was a "risk management failure." "I think the bigger problem was that there was no [...] person who was chiefly in charge of monitoring the risk of margin positions on FTX. Like there should have been, but there wasn't," said SBF.
"At the same time, I think, you know, we stretched ourselves too thin. And we're doing a lot of things at the company - and, you know, I think we should have cut a few of them out and focus more on making sure that the fundamental, like the most important things we were doing well at," he added.
Sam Bankman-Fried Also Made Political Donations
The SBF interview confirmed the allegations that Sam Bankman-Fried may have had some connections with government authorities because of the laxity in prosecuting him.
While speaking with Tiffany Fong, SBF revealed that he had donated to both the democratic and republican parties of the United States.
"I donated to both parties. I donated about the same amount to both parties (...) That was not generally known (...) All my Republican donations were dark (...), and the reason was not for regulatory reasons - it's just that reporters freak the fuck out if you donate to Republicans [inaudible]; they're all liberal, and I didn't want to have that fight," Sam Bankman-Fried said.
My Future is Uncertain — Sam Bankman-Fried
After the FTX scandal, Sam Bankman-Fried admitted during the interview that he thinks his future is currently uncertain. He also said that what he is currently facing was not what he wished or dreamed for himself.
"I don't know what the future will hold for me - it's pretty unclear - it's certainly not the future I once thought it was (...) my future is not the thing that [inaudible], not the thing that matters here - what matters is the world's future -I'm much more worried about the damage that I did to that than whatever happens to me personally," SBF said during the interview.
Alameda Received $36 Billion USDT from Tether
Alameda can be referred to as the sister company of FTX, and Alameda was accused of receiving about $36 Billion USDT from Tether. While the allegation has been confirmed to be true, many crypto advocates have raised the alarm about Tether's links with the FTX scandal.
Before FTX collapsed, the failed crypto exchange was the second largest customer of Tether, but Tether had denied having any other relations with FTX. According to Tether's CTO Ardoino "Alameda sent USD and got USDT."