In today's NYT Dealbook, SBF claimed that "unspecified third parties" were behind the "hack" around the time they went bankrupt, that they spent "thousands of hours" on compliance, that dealing with the CFTC is "too much work", that they had "too many boards" overseeing their work (internally), and that customers might be made "whole" if FTX were recapitalized like Bitfinex was. Also, he claims he took all the money FTX/Alameda loaned him and then used contributed it back to them so he's super duper not sure where all the money is. (This last bit by itself isn't usually illegal; law firm and accounting firm partners do this all the time when they first buy their stakes, but FTX appears to have double- or triple-booked this money: first when received, possibly again when loaned out to SBF, and again when recontributed back to the company.)
He claims he has no hidden funds, he's down to his "last credit card" and last $100k in his bank account.
I expect many of his statements today to be used against him in court. Assuming he hasn't "died" by then.
> The obvious difference being that Bitfinex seems to be run by adults.
Who like to repeatedly lie to people too.
Remember how "We're unrelated to Tether" turned into "We gave Tether a loan. See how the three signatories on the Bitfinex side of that contract are our corporate officers, Mr A, B and C, and Tether's corporate officers who signed the contract for them are Mr A, B and C? We're going to need you to ignore that."
Which doesn’t necessarily mean that Bitfinex won’t collapse. It had the benefit of a rising market and lack of regulation which allowed them to give out tradable equity.
Of course, but given that the lost money has now been recovered and has vastly increased in value since the theft (from $72 million to over two billion, out of which Bitfinex keeps at least 20%) it's not all that likely that Bitfinex will collapse.
He claims he has no hidden funds, he's down to his "last credit card" and last $100k in his bank account.
I expect many of his statements today to be used against him in court. Assuming he hasn't "died" by then.