Billionaire Founder of Coinbase Rejects Sam Bankman-Fried’s Account of Events, Says Funds Were ‘Stolen’
The CEO of the major crypto exchange Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, basically called the FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried a liar, stating that the latter couldn't have possibly missed billions of 'extra' dollars showing up in the accounts.
After laying low for a brief period of time, the former FTX CEO has done interviews in an effort to explain what had happened to the exchange and the customer funds - but his explanations have drawn dissatisfaction and criticism from the crypto community who see these as (poor) attempts at damage control.
Commenting on Bankman-Fried's version of events that led to the fall of his exchange, Armstrong wasn't mincing words, stating that,
"It's stolen customer money used in his hedge fund, plain and simple."
The implication here is that the money was used to fill a hole in the balance sheet of FTX's parent company and brokerage arm Alameda Research.
According to Armstrong,
"I don't care how messy your accounting is (or how rich you are) - you're definitely going to notice if you find an extra $8B to spend."
Armstrong went on to say that "even the most gullible person should not believe Sam's claim that this was an accounting error."
As a reminder, after reappearing in public, Bankman-Fried blamed bad accounting and “huge management failures” for the company's failure, and for $8 billion being moved from FTX to Alameda. The relationship between these two companies continues to be scrutinized and has turned quite controversial following the FTX implosion.
In The New York Times interview, the former CEO stated that he "did not ever try to commit fraud on anyone", that he "didn't knowingly commingle funds", that he "was frankly surprised by how big Alameda’s position was", and that there was "a massive
Read more on cryptonews.com
