SBF Wanted an In-Person Meeting With New FTX CEO

Bankman-Fried has been trying to contact FTX’s new leadership, but his motivations are being questioned. 

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried tried to organize an in-person meeting with its current CEO John Ray weeks after being charged with fraud.

• According to newly released emails filed by Federal prosecutors on Monday, Bankman-Fried said he wanted to be helpful to the asset recovery process where he could.
• On December 30, he asked whether Ray’s team was responsible for draining assets from Alameda Research, which he’d read about in a media article.
• “If this is your team moving the assets to custody, great!” Bankman-Fried wrote. “If not, I worry it might be a hacker — possibly the same one as a month and a half ago.” A mysterious hacker drained $500 million from FTX shortly after the company filed for bankruptcy in November, though their identity remains a mystery.
• Ray has previously stated that Bankman-Fried is yet to give him any details on the bankruptcy that he doesn’t already know.
• The former billionaire also contacts FTX US’s general counsel earlier this month through, which the government saw as an attempt to sway potential witness testimony. Bankman-Fried’s lawyer said it was merely an innocuous attempt to assist with the bankruptcy process.
• Bankman-Fried has previously spoken critically of Ray, as well as the law firm Sullivan and Cromwell, for trying to extort as many fees from the bankruptcy process as possible.