As reported by the UK's Daily Mail, Bankman-Fried also blamed one of his girlfriends for the loss of his $32 billion company, while he noted that his commitment to woke "ethics" was just "a front" and he now "feels bad" for anyone who was "f**ked by it."
SBF, the founder of the failed crypto exchange and platform that collapsed last week and cost consumers billions of dollars, has also confessed that his efforts to appeal to left-wing morality police when the company was in its prime were just a "dumb game we woke Westerners play." Possibly to emphasize his phony concerns, FTX's HQ was located in the Bahamas, which is a tax-free haven.
He also said that the FTX collapse should be blamed on Alameda Research, a trading firm that he founded in 2017 and was run by on-again, off-again lover and Harry Potter enthusiast Caroline Ellison, the UK outlet reported further, which added:
Bankman-Fried, who owned a majority stake in Alameda, installed Ellison, 28, as CEO of the multibillion dollar fund in October 2021 despite her limited professional trading experience.
He appears to accept FTX lent Alameda billions of dollars in clients’ money without their knowledge or permission. The crisis at FTX was triggered when customers rushed to withdraw their funds but the company couldn't pay out.
Bankman-Fried, 30, lived in a $40 million penthouse in the Bahamas, a tax haven, with Ellison in a 10-person 'polycule' made up his inner circle of FTX and Alameda executives.
He made his latest string of sensational comments in a car crash interview with Vox reporter Kelsey Piper.
Since the company's dramatic collapse, questions have also arisen as to why U.S. Securities and Exchange chairman Gary Gensler did not pick up on what was happening at FTX despite several signs that things were wrong or, at a minimum, not adding up. Gensler himself has been critical of the crypto industry, comparing it to the "wild west."
Other questions surrounding the monumental collapse of this company include, per the Daily Mail:
Before the company's collapse, Bankman used his assumed wealth to schmooz regulators (including Gensler) and politicians, though he mostly showered Democrats with cash since leftists control the bulk of the federal bureaucracy. But in an interview with Vox, Bankman-Fried said "f**k regulators" whom he accused of making "everything worse."
The outlet's Kelsey Piper told Bankman-Fried: "You were really good at talking about ethics for someone who kind of saw it all as a game with winners and losers."
"Ya, I had to be, it’s what reputations are made of, to some extent," the disgraced crypto fraudster responded. "I feel bad for those who get f***** by it, by this dumb game we woke Westerners play where we say all the right shibboleths , and so everyone likes us."
Shibboleth is a term that generally associates with 'shared beliefs.'
There is a growing chorus calling for Bankman-Fried to be extradited to the United States so he can possibly face charges for illegal financial activities between FTX and Alameda Research, such as the former 'loaning' the latter customers' money.
In the meantime, Bankman-Fried revealed what he has to do, and quickly, after filing for bankruptcy.
"I have two weeks to raise $8 billion, that’s basically all that matters for the rest of my life," he said.
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