Ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried says he will testify remotely before House committee
Former crypto exchange leader says he has no plans to appear before the Senate this week
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Sam Bankman-Fried says he will appear before a House Financial Services Committee hearing set for Tuesday, but the former FTX CEO will not be attending in person.
Bankman-Fried made the revelation in his latest interview Monday morning during a Twitter Spaces chat hosted by Unusual Whales, where he said he would not make the trip to Capitol Hill because it is "also frankly pretty important" for him to remain in the Bahamas where he has been staying for the past year running his businesses.
"I'm quite overbooked and was not planning to be testifying until, like, very recently," Bankman-Fried explained, adding that he did not want to leave the Bahamas "from a security standpoint" because currently "the paparazzi effect is quite large" when he tries to venture out.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried speaks during the New York Times DealBook Summit in the Appel Room at the Jazz At Lincoln Center on November 30, 2022 in New York City. ((Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) / Getty Images)
When asked whether he feared he might be detained if he stepped foot in the U.S., Bankman-Fried said, "I don't believe I would be, but I haven't done a deep dive into that."
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Lawmakers are seeking answers from Bankman-Fried as they investigate how his firm lost billions of dollars in investors' funds. FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month and its new CEO, John Ray III, is working to piece together what happened.
Bankman-Fried has sat for numerous media interviews since FTX fell apart, but has not yet spoken under oath to lawmakers.
Representative Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California and chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, during a hearing in Washington, D.C., US, on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
House Financial Service Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., praised the former CEO for his candor in those public discussions earlier this month and asked for his voluntary participation at Tuesday's hearing. Waters followed up last week threatening to subpoena Bankman-Fried if he chose not to participate.
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The Senate Banking Committee is holding a hearing this week on the FTX collapse, too, which is slated for Wednesday. Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and ranking member Pat Toomey, R-Pa., also threatened to subpoena Bankman-Fried if he does not agree to appear.
But Bankman-Fried said during Monday's interview that he has no current plans to appear before the Senate panel this week, calling it "duplicative" since he will be speaking to the House committee the day prior.
Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, questions Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Chairman Powell during a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on the CARES Act, at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C (Kevin Dietsch/Pool via REUTERS / Reuters Photos)
In response to FOX Business inquiring about whether the Senate Banking Committee had issued a subpoena to Bankman-Fried, the committee provided a statement Monday afternoon confirming one had not been sent because the disgraced founder's attorneys purportedly refused to cooperate.
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"We have offered Sam Bankman-Fried two different dates for providing testimony before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and are willing to accommodate virtual testimony," Brown and Toomey said in a joint statement. "He has declined in an unprecedented abdication of accountability."
"Given that Bankman-Fried’s counsel has stated they are unwilling to accept service of a subpoena, we will continue to work to have him appear before the Committee," the statement continued. "He owes the American people an explanation."
This story has been updated to include the statement from Sens. Brown and Toomey.