JUST IN: Sam Bankman-Fried to Testify Before Congress Next Week About FTX Debacle

Disgraced FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried has agreed to testify before Congress next week about the fall of his company.

Bankman-Fried’s consent follows days of a back-and-forth between him and the House Committee on Financial Services and its chair, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA).

Since FTX and crypto trading firm Alameda Research, which Bankman-Fried also co-founded, filed for bankruptcy last month, Bankman-Fried has been making the media rounds, including interviews with ABC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous other outlets. FTX has been accused of transferring client funds to Alameda without its clients knowing.

“@SBF_FTX, we appreciate that you’ve been candid in your discussions about what happened at #FTX. Your willingness to talk to the public will help the company’s customers, investors, and others. To that end, we would welcome your participation in our hearing on the 13th,” jointly tweeted the committee and Watters on Dec. 2.

“Rep. Waters, and the House Committee on Financial Services: Once I have finished learning and reviewing what happened, I would feel like it was my duty to appear before the committee and explain. I’m not sure that will happen by the 13th. But when it does, I will testify,” Bankman-Fried responded on Dec. 4.

“@SBF_FTX, Based on your role as CEO and your media interviews over the past few weeks, it’s clear to us that the information you have thus far is sufficient for testimony,” replied Watters and the committee on Monday.

Waters added onto that reply in a thread.

“As you know, the collapse of FTX has harmed over one million people. Your testimony would not only be meaningful to Members of Congress, but is also critical to the American people,” she tweeted.

“It is imperative that you attend our hearing on the 13th, and we are willing to schedule continued hearings if there is more information to be shared later,” continued Watters.

In a Twitter thread on Friday, Bankman-Fried said he’d appear before the committee.

“I still do not have access to much of my data — professional or personal. So there is a limit to what I will be able to say, and I won’t be as helpful as I’d like. But as the committee still thinks it would be useful, I am willing to testify on the 13th,” he tweeted.

Bankman-Fried went on to say he “will try to be helpful during the hearing, and to shed what light I can on” including “FTX US’s solvency and American customers,” “pathways that could return value to users internationally,” “what I think led to the crash,” and “my own failings.”

“I had thought of myself as a model CEO, who wouldn’t become lazy or disconnected. Which made it that much more destructive when I did. I’m sorry. Hopefully people can learn from the difference between who I was and who I could have been,” he concluded.

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