FTX's Bankman-Fried to testify to Congress about billion-dollar collapse of cryptocurrency platform

FTX CEO John J. Ray III is also scheduled to testify to the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday.
Sam Bankman-Fried, Dec. 8, 2021, Washington, D.C.
By Madeleine Hubbard

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and former CEO of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX, said he will testify remotely to Congress on Tuesday about the collapse of his multi-billion-dollar company.

Bankman-Fried said Monday on Twitter Spaces that he will testify through Zoom from his luxury home in the Bahamas, The New York Post reported.

FTX CEO John J. Ray III is also scheduled to testify to the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday. 

The committee invited Bankman-Fried to testify earlier this month via Twitter. After exchanging several tweets with the committee, Bankman-Fried on Friday said: "[T]here is a limit to what I will be able to say, and I won't be as helpful as I'd like. But as the committee still thinks it would be useful, I am willing to testify on the 13th."

Bankman-Fried has not yet agreed to testify to the Senate Banking Committee for the hearing Wednesday titled, "Crypto Crash: Why the FTX Bubble Burst and the Harm to Consumers."

The testimony comes as the Justice Department mulls bringing criminal charges related to money laundering against former FTX rival Binance, which offered to buy FTX in November and backed out just two days before FTX declared bankruptcy.