Cointime

Cointime

Download App
iOS & Android

Lawmaker Pleads With Sam Bankman-Fried To Attend Congress Hearing on FTX

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, chair of the House Committee on Financial Services, has politely asked former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) to attend a congressional hearing on the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange. Bankman-Fried says he will testify when he has finished “learning and reviewing what happened.”

Bankman-Fried Responds to Rep. Waters’ Invitation

The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services will hold a congressional hearing on the collapse of crypto exchange FTX on Dec. 13. Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the committee’s chair, has been trying to get former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) to attend the hearing. However, instead of issuing a subpoena for him to testify, Waters politely asked him on Twitter Friday.

“We appreciate that you’ve been candid in your discussions about what happened at FTX. Your willingness to talk to the public will help the company’s customers, investors, and others. To that end, we would welcome your participation in our hearing on the 13th,” she tweeted.

Bankman-Fried responded to Waters on Twitter Saturday:

Once I have finished learning and reviewing what happened, I would feel like it was my duty to appear before the committee and explain. I’m not sure that will happen by the 13th. But when it does, I will testify.

Waters Insists SBF Must Attend Next Week’s Hearing

Congresswoman Waters responded to Bankman-Fried Monday: “Based on your role as CEO and your media interviews over the past few weeks, it’s clear to us that the information you have thus far is sufficient for testimony.” In a follow-up tweet, she wrote:

As you know, the collapse of FTX has harmed over one million people. Your testimony would not only be meaningful to members of Congress, but is also critical to the American people.

Waters stressed: “It is imperative that you attend our hearing on the 13th, and we are willing to schedule continued hearings if there is more information to be shared later.”

At the time of writing, Bankman-Fried has not replied to Waters further.

Many people on social media criticized Waters for her politeness towards Bankman-Fried. A number of people urged the lawmaker to stop asking SBF nicely on social media and issue a subpoena to force him to testify.

However, some suspect that Waters is polite to Bankman-Fried because the former FTX boss was the second-largest donor to the Democratic Party during the 2021-22 election cycle. According to Opensecrets, he donated $39,884,256 to Democrats before FTX imploded and had to file for bankruptcy. However, Tesla CEO and Twitter chief Elon Musk believes that SBF’s actual support to Democrats was over $1 billion.

FTX
Comments

All Comments

Recommended for you

  • Xinjiang launches special campaign to combat illegal fundraising, with key areas including virtual currency, blockchain, etc.

    According to Chang'an Xinjiang Public Account, Xinjiang Autonomous Region and Corps have launched a joint special action to crack down on illegal fund-raising, with key areas including third-party wealth management, fake private equity, fake gold exchange and other traditional fields, as well as emerging fields such as virtual currency, blockchain, cultural tourism, film and television investment, and debt resolution services. It is reported that key cases include cases involving more than 100 million yuan and cases that have been criminally filed for more than five years.

  • A British court has postponed the final sentencing of Wen Jian, a British-Chinese national involved in the country's largest Bitcoin money laundering case, until May 24.

    On May 11th, it was reported that Jian Wen, a 42-year-old British Chinese citizen, was found guilty of "participating in arranging money laundering" in the UK's largest Bitcoin money laundering case. He could be sentenced to up to 14 years in prison. Jian Wen's defense lawyer, Mark Harries, stated that due to the judge's busy schedule, the UK court has postponed Jian Wen's final sentencing, which was originally scheduled for May 10th, to May 24th.

  • Web3 startup Star Nest completes $6 million in Pre-A round of financing

    Hong Kong Web3 music startup Star Nest announced that it has completed a $6 million Pre-A round of financing, led by Chuangqi International Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed company Guofu Innovation. Star Nest will collaborate with Armonia Meta Chain to develop the Star Nest SpaceStar metaverse game, which includes music, role-playing, and social features.In addition, Star Nest plans to launch its NEST project in the third quarter of 2024. Nest will receive 2.1 billion NEST tokens tailored for the project, and Star Nest will use the NEST token to build a more complete music industry token economic system. The NEST token will be widely used for purchasing performance tickets, chain game cooperation, metaverse consumption, governance voting, and other activities.

  • Over $594 million worth of PYTH is staked

    According to Dune data,  there are currently 1,201,167,362 PYTH tokens in the staked state, with a total staked value exceeding $594 million. The number of PYTH stakers has reached 151,211.

  • US Department of Justice: Tornado Cash indictment has nothing to do with "free speech"

    On May 11th, the US Department of Justice explained why the motion to dismiss the criminal case against Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm was invalid. The Department of Justice reiterated that their indictment was not related to whether the Tornado Cash computer code had freedom of speech or was protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. The defendant was not charged for publishing computer code, but for using it to facilitate profitable illegal activities.

  • USDC circulation decreased by $100 million in the past week, with a total circulation of $33 billion

    According to official data，as of May 9th, Circle has issued approximately $2 billion USDC and redeemed approximately $2 billion USDC in the past 7 days, with a decrease in circulation of approximately $100 million. The total circulation of USDC is $33 billion, with a reserve of $33.1 billion, including approximately $3.3 billion in cash and Circle Reserve Fund holding approximately $29.8 billion.

  • SEC rejects Coinbase's request for appeals court ruling on cryptocurrency rules

    The US SEC has rejected Coinbase's request to appeal to the court to review whether traditional securities rules are applicable to cryptocurrencies. In its application, Coinbase stated that it hoped the appeals court would consider whether the Howey test, which has long been used for securities evaluation, should be applied to digital assets. However, the SEC pointed out that Coinbase has not successfully demonstrated the need for such an evaluation. The SEC stated that Coinbase is attempting to create a "new legal test," but this attempt was rejected by the court. The court found that Coinbase's arguments lacked consistency and did not successfully demonstrate the existence of decisive issues. Currently, the judge responsible for hearing the SEC's case against Coinbase will make a ruling on Coinbase's intermediate appeal motion.

  • Colombian President Suspected of Accepting $500,000 in Illegal Crypto Donations

    Colombian President Gustavo Petro is suspected of accepting over $500,000 in digital token donations from a fraudulent cryptocurrency project during his 2022 election campaign. A former contractor revealed that the illegal donation occurred during a meeting in February 2022 that discussed the advantages of cryptocurrency and the possibility of working with the government. This allegation is one of the latest charges faced by President Petro during his election campaign, with the Colombian Prosecutor's Office investigating his campaign last year.

  • Fed's Kashkari: The bar for another rate hike is high, but it cannot be ruled out

    The Federal Reserve's Kashkari expressed a cautious attitude towards restrictive monetary policy; he is adopting a wait-and-see attitude towards future monetary policy; he is in a wait-and-see state to see if inflation is stagnating; the threshold for raising interest rates again is high, but this possibility cannot be ruled out; if inflation data supports it, the Fed will maintain interest rates.

  • The address that defrauded 1,155 wBTC has returned more than 96% of the funds to the victims

    Blockchain data shows that the address poisoning attacker lured users to send 1,155 Wrapped Bitcoins (wBTC) (valued at $68 million at the time) to them. The attacker has returned almost all of the stolen funds. These funds were exchanged for Ethereum (ETH) during the attacker's holding period, and the price of ETH has since fallen. However, the attacker returned about 22,960.07 ETH, worth about $65.7 million, which accounts for over 96% of the initial stolen funds in terms of US dollar value.

Daily Must-Read

Popular Activities

Delysium $AGI & AI Private Yacht Party

Delysium $AGI & AI Private Yacht Party

March 27 - March 27
Seoul

Popular Tags

Cointime
News
Contents
RSS
Company