Sam Bankman-Fried blames former FTX executives
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried stated that former executives were also responsible for the company's bankruptcy.
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Testifying before a jury for the first time, Sam Bankman-Fried continued to deny the charges against him, consistent with his past statements.
Targeting former FTX executives Nishad Singh and Gary Wang, SBF said that Wang was partially responsible for the "negative allow" feature for Alameda. Thanks to this feature, Alameda Research was able to obtain funds with unlimited capacity.
SBF said the following regarding Alameda's credit limit:
“I wasn't sure exactly what was happening at the time. I thought the funds were being held in a bank account or sent to FTX as stablecoins. If Alameda was holding these assets, I thought it would reflect negatively on FTX.”
SBF also shared his views regarding former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison:
“Caroline was a good manager and could empathize. She wasn't a software developer. She was good at research. She wasn't focused on risk management.”
SBF's statements contradict the testimonies of Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison. In his testimony, Wang said that SBF instructed him and Singh to implement the "negative allow" feature. Ellison also stated that she wanted to resign as CEO, but SBF did not allow her to do so.