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Fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried welcomed with APPLAUSE for scandal interview, Internet says 'he's a thief'

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, made his first public appearance since his company's collapse

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, made his first public appearance since his company's collapse made creditors face losses totaling billions of dollars. Bankman-Fried spoke to Andrew Ross Sorkin via video link at the New York Times' Dealbook Summit on Wednesday, November 30. During the interview, he said he did not knowingly commingle customer funds on FTX with funds at Alameda Research, his proprietary trading firm.

Social media is furious after a video showed the crowd erupting in applause as Bankman-Fried was called for the interview. "I didn't ever try to commit fraud," Bankman-Fried, adding that he does not think he has any criminal liability. He further said that he did not know the full scale of Alameda's position on FTX, and claimed that it took him by surprise. 

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Bankman-Fried has been accused of secretly moving $10 billion of FTX customer funds to Alameda Research, following which the FTX was faced with a liquidity crunch. At least $1 billion in customer funds had reportedly vanished. During the interview, he said he was speaking from the Bahamas but it was against the advice of his lawyers.

Bankman-Fried said that as digital asset prices fell this year, Alameda became levered to the point of no return earlier this month. "Realistically speaking, (there was) no ability for FTX to be able to liquidate that position and generate everything that was owed," he said, adding that he "wasn't trying to commingle funds." 

Bankman-Fried said that discrepancies could have occurred after some customers wired money to Alameda and were credited on FTX at a time when FTX did not have a bank account. He stepped down as CEO of Alameda in October 2021, four years after founding the company. Caroline Ellison and Sam Trabucco then acted as co-CEOs until Trabucco left the firm in August.

After the video of Bankman-Fried being welcomed with applause surfaced, one user wrote on Twitter, "THE CROWD ERUPTED IN APPLAUSE AS INTERVIEWER THANKS SAM BANKMAN FRIED FOR COMING ON... uhhhhhhh wut. this man is a psychopath criminal who just lied for an hr straight." "Sam Bankman-Fried spent this afternoon living his best life to a round of grateful applause at a NYT @dealbook event. What a world…," one user said. "Wow, the way Sam Bankman-Fried interview happened truly baffled me. Just a kid who made a terrible mistake, unintentionally. Poor him! The audience applause and laughed several times. And I thought people lost real money! You kidding?" said one user.

"The New York Times is obscene for giving this charlatan, fraud and grifter a platform," one user wrote, while another said, "This must be a joke? He stole billions of $.. he’s a thief". "Applauding criminals, I guess this is Clown World," one user said.

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.