Sam Bankman-Fried, the former chief executive for now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, has denied knowledge of the “Wirefraud” secret group chat.
The group reportedly consists of former executives from the exchange platform and its research wing, Alameda Research.
Bankman-Fried took to social media to hit back at an Australian Financial Review (AFR) report on 12 December accusing the disgraced crypto executive of being involved in the Signal-based group chat.
According to the report, the collective included Nishad Singh, former FTX engineer, Caroline Ellison, Alameda Research chief executive, Zixiao Wang, FTX co-founder, and others. It added group members used the encrypted chat to share information about the two firms prior to their collapses.
He said in a tweeted response to the article: “If this is true then I wasn’t a member of that inner circle (I’m quite sure it’s just false; I have never heard of such a group)
SBF Arrest, Potential Subpoena
The news comes as US officials expected the former exec to remotely join a United States House Committee hearing on Tuesday to testify on the events leading up to FTX’s collapse.
He was arrested a day before the hearing by Bahamian authorities on charges of wire and securities fraud, mishandling funds, and money laundering, among others.
Maxine Waters, House committee chair, later stated on Monday he would be unable to attend the hearing due to the arrest. The announcement comes after he was also expected to attend a further Senate Committee on Banking hearing on 14 December. His lawyers refused to accept a subpoena, Senators Pat Toomey and Sherrod Brown noted in a Monday joint statement on the matter.
The news comes just days after the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) launched an investigation to determine whether Bankman-Fried had committed fraud and funds offshoring days ahead of the crisis.
FTX suffered a huge liquidity crunch and subsequent bank run in mid-November, leading to the exchange’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 11 November along with Alameda and 130 affiliates.
