Sam Bankman-Fried’s Phone Call to His Parents: ‘There Might Be a Liquidity Issue’

The FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried stated on Wednesday that his mother and father “bore no duty” for the downfall of his crypto trade and the buying and selling arm, Alameda Analysis, which he based.

“Anybody near me, together with my mother and father and staff and colleagues who fought with the corporate to push ahead, they have been damage by this,” Mr. Bankman-Fried stated. “They bore no duty for that. I really feel actually unhealthy about that. I really feel actually grateful for the help my mother and father are nonetheless giving me all through all of this.”

Each of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s mother and father are Stanford Regulation Faculty professors, who Mr. Bankman-Fried has stated have been influential in shaping his moral framework. Their vocations additionally helped lend Mr. Bankman-Fried, 30, an extra veneer of credibility with buyers and others as he constructed his cryptocurrency empire.

Mr. Bankman-Fried was requested by Andrew Ross Sorkin on the DealBook Summit what he advised his mother and father when his agency started to break down this month. FTX was compelled to file for chapter after an avalanche of buyer withdrawals created an $8 billion gap on the agency’s stability sheet. Mr. Bankman-Fried likened the shopper exodus to a run on the financial institution.

“I believe I referred to as them up and stated, ‘Hey guys, I believe there is perhaps an issue, like, it appears like Alameda’s place is perhaps imploding right here — there is perhaps a liquidity problem,’” he stated.

When requested concerning the $300 million price of actual property that FTX and Mr. Bankman-Fried’s mother and father reportedly purchased within the Bahamas, he stated he didn’t “know the main points however that it was not meant to be their long-term property.”

“They might have stayed there whereas working with the corporate someday during the last 12 months,” he stated of his mother and father.

As for different instant private fallout from the implosion of FTX, Mr. Bankman-Fried stated he thought he had one working bank card and $100,000 left within the financial institution.

“I don’t have any hidden funds right here,” he stated.

Mr. Bankman-Fried additionally painted FTX as having a tame work tradition, brushing apart a query from Mr. Sorkin about FTX staffers’ alleged drug use. “There have been no wild events. At our events, we play board video games. Twenty % of individuals would have 1 / 4 of a beer every, and the remainder of us wouldn’t drink something.”

Mr. Bankman-Fried stated he had been prescribed “numerous issues” to assist with focus.

“I believe they assist me focus slightly bit,” he stated. “I had been much more targeted during the last 12 months.”

And to the query of whether or not he lied to prospects, buyers and regulators: “I used to be as truthful as I’m educated to be,” he stated.