Where is Sam Bankman Fried, you ask? It is not an easy question.
On Friday, he resigned from his position as CEO at FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange which collapsed in a spectacular fashion this week. FTX’s sudden downfall and bankruptcy has eroded the already shaky confidence in the crypto sector and sparked renewed calls for stronger regulations in the space.
After his resignation crypto watchers speculated He said that he fled to Argentina via a private jet. But did he? Reuters reported Saturday morning that it had asked him by text message if he had. to which he replied, “Nope.”
Then it was revealed that he had gone to the Bahamas instead, where FTX is based. Bahamian police force and regulators interviewed him on Saturday, according Bloomberg, citing a “person familiar with the matter.”
The intrigue surrounding the crypto mogul’s location is notable given how open and accessible he seemed before.
“You would send emails to the press team at FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried himself would email you back. He was very approachable, very easily accessed,” said Wall Street Journal Caitlin Ostroff, reporter Friday episode Of The Journal podcast.
Bankman-Fried was still a bit hesitant to make a simple statement a few months ago. question about where he livedReporters were told by. Zoom call: “I, uh, so, sorry, I—I’m hesitating because I mostly sleep on a bag…I live, I don’t know. Technically I live alone, but don’t sleep there. I mostly sleep on couches and beanbags.”
He was asked about the boundaries of FTX and Alameda Research in that call. According to reporting by, FTX lent billions in dollars to Alameda Research. The money was used for risky bets. CoinDesk Then, the Wall Street Journal.
Billionaire Mark Cuban said on Friday that Bankman-Fried ran FTX in a “dumb” way: “So, what does Sam Bankman do? He just, give me more, give me more, give me more, so I’m gonna borrow money, loan it to my affiliated company, and hope and pretend to myself that the FTT tokens that are in there on my balance sheet are gonna sustain their value.”
Bankman-Fried isn’t the only disgraced crypto mogul who’s made people guess about his whereabouts. Do Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs South Korea, is missing. denied he’s on the run From authorities in his homeland, where he is facing allegations of manipulating Terra stablecoin’s prices. This was in May. Korean prosecutors alleged in September that, despite his claims, he’s “obviously on the run.”
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