PANews reported on October 31 that according to Cointelegraph, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) claimed that spending customers' fiat currency deposits was just part of Alameda Research's "risk management." In SBF's court testimony today, Danielle Sassoon, prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, asked SBF if he thought it was okay to spend FTX customers' $8 billion in fiat currency. SBF said, "I think it's incorporated into risk management. As the CEO of Alameda, I care about their portfolio. At FTX, I've been paying attention, but not to the extent I should."
According to SBF, no one was fired for allegedly misappropriating $8 billion worth of customer funds for speculative trading during his tenure as CEO of FTX and Alameda. SBF said it was unaware of certain employee characteristics. SBF also revealed that it has close ties with the Bahamian government. Sassoon asked SBF if he gave the Bahamian Prime Minister and his wife courtside seats at the FTX Stadium in Miami, to which SBF replied: "I'm not sure, I think they did go to a game. I don't know the details." SBF allegedly discussed with Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis the repayment of Bahamian debts, and although SBF denied this, he admitted to helping Philip Davis' son find a job.
