John Ray disputed former platform CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's argument that the platform's catastrophic 2022 collapse did not harm customers. Bankman-Fried promised to return all funds to creditors during the bankruptcy proceedings. However, Ray doubts that exchange clients will receive full refunds because Bankman-Fried is missing important factors.
Bankman-Fried ignores the fact that users who held Bitcoin on FTX at the time of its collapse will receive assets that were 400% lower than they are now, since the value of the distributed crypto assets is fixed at the date of filing the claim, Ray explained. Most likely, there may be errors in client accounts due to “secret” borrowing of funds from Alameda Research, the FTX CEO added.
It also doesn't account for funds that FTX didn't get back, such as bribes to Chinese officials, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars spent dealing with politicians and celebrities. Ray also said that at the time of his assumption of the position of CEO of FTX, there were only 105 BTC left on the exchange, and the debt to clients was about 100,000 BTC. The missing bitcoins could have been used by Bankman-Freed for personal purposes, Ray suggested.
“Bankman-Fried continues to live in delusion. The business he left on November 11, 2022 was neither solvent nor safe. He stole huge amounts of money, so he deserves a fair punishment,” said the new head of FTX.
Bankman-Fried's sentencing is scheduled for March 28. Recently, his defense appealed to the court to reduce his prison term from 110 years to five years in prison. Otherwise, this life sentence will be a real barbarity for a person who committed a non-violent offense, lawyers insist.
Source: Bits
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