FTX Ex-President to Share What He Knew About the Collapsed Exchange "In Time"
Brett Harrison, the former president of the crypto exchange FTX U.S. plans on spilling the beans on the exchange’s operations soon. The former executive disclosed his intentions early Monday when responding to a question on his knowledge of the firm by one of his followers.
“Why don’t more recent tech startups do what Amazon did and go public very early? Relatedly, how do companies reconcile the desire to stay private for long periods of time while rushing into token issuance?” Harrison had asked in a general tweet.
Almost instantly, the tweep known as James Christoph asked, “What did you know about FTX Official US and when did you know it?” prompting Harrison to respond- “I’ll share in time.”
Harrison’s take comes just over two months after Sam Bankman Fried’s crypto empire came tumbling after its bad books were exposed. The former high-speed trading executive at Citadel Securities stepped down from FTX U.S. last September after serving in the position for less than two years. Notably, his exit coincided with the period when FTX was been seeking out distressed crypto assets in the U.S. as it tried to expand its global market share during the so-called crypto winter.
In the lead-up to the pundit’s message today, the crypto community has been calling for a probe into all of FTX’s business partners, current and former employees as well as customers even as the fallen crypto exchange battles bankruptcy proceedings.
Last week, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that US prosecutors, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission were probing Sam Bankman Fried’s inner circle. Key among those mentioned was Nishad Singh, a former FTX engineer and close associate of Bankman Fried for his alleged role in perpetuating multi-year fraud at FTX and trading firm Alameda Research.
According to reports, authorities may also be trailing a list of other associates who reportedly lived “lavishly” with Bankman-Fried in a Bahamas penthouse to charge them with a slew of criminal charges and recover stolen assets.
Mid last month, Caroline Ellison, who headed Alameda Research, the trading firm started by Bankman-Fried pleaded guilty to fraud alongside FTX co-founder Gary Wang. The two lieutenants have reportedly been working with authorities.
Whereas Harrison did not immediately respond to our request for a comment, his observations are likely to shed more light on the inner workings of FTX, helping authorities tackle one of the most complex fraud trials in history.
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