Disgraced former crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried will testify before Congress remotely because he is “quite overbooked,” according to a Monday interview.
Bankman-Fried’s comments came during a Monday Twitter chat room with “Unusual Whales,” a Twitter user with one million followers who specializes in business news, and multiple tech journalists.
Today Unusual Whales asked questions to SBF of FTX regarding:
– wire fraud
– customer deposits + withdraws
– assets backing 1:1
– tokenized shares
– Alameda loans
– Congress
– TetherWe + panel asked hard Qs and cut him off. Listen to the interview here: https://t.co/OvGXckf3oe
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) December 12, 2022
He was pressed about his decision not to appear in person and the possibility of being arrested if he travels to the U.S to testify in person.
Bankman-Fried responded by voicing concerns about the “paparazzi effect” and added, “I don’t believe I would be [arrested]” 38 minutes into the interview.
Bankman-Fried confirmed will testify in front of the House Financial Services Committee Tuesday via Zoom from his Bahamas residence, the New York Post reported. (REPORT: Sam Bankman-Fried Secretly Funded Well Known Crypto Site)
He said he is “not currently scheduled” to testify in front of the Senate Banking Committee for its Wednesday hearing on the collapse of his crypto exchange FTX, Bloomberg reported.
Committee Chair Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, and GOP ranking member Sen. Pat Toomey have expressed openness to further action, including a subpoena, to compel Bankman-Fried to testify.
He told Forbes in a separate Monday interview, “I’m writing up a lot of documents to prep” for the hearings. He specified that he has 22 pages of prep, primarily for written testimony.
Bankman-Fried was playing video games during the Unusual Whales interview, which generated clicking sounds in the background. In 2021 he admitted to playing League of Legends on phone calls such as investment pitches to venture capitalists.