SBF Claims FTX Was Solvent, Blames Bankruptcy Team in Clemency Plea

2 days ago7 min read

From federal prison, convicted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is mounting a controversial new defense, claiming through intermediaries that his crypto exchange was solvent when forced into bankruptcy. SBF alleges the restructuring team led by CEO John Ray III 'decimated' the company rather than saving it, a narrative being presented to former President Donald Trump in a bid for clemency.This eleventh-hour argument directly contradicts the official account that secured his 25-year sentence for one of history's largest financial frauds. The bankruptcy professionals who inherited FTX's ruins have consistently described a company in catastrophic disarray—lacking basic financial controls, commingling billions in customer funds, and operating with what Ray called 'an unprecedented failure of corporate controls.' Where SBF sees a salvageable enterprise, investigators found a hollow empire propped up by its FTT token and systemic misuse of customer assets through affiliated trading firm Alameda Research. The plea for presidential intervention represents a final gamble that ignores the fundamental reality: FTX's collapse wasn't about liquidity on a specific day, but about the complete erosion of trust and fiduciary responsibility.The bankruptcy team's mandate wasn't to preserve SBF's legacy but to recover assets for the victims—a painstaking process that continues through asset sales and litigation. As this final act unfolds, it underscores the enduring warning about centralized crypto failures that Bitcoin's original architecture sought to prevent.

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