FTX founder
Sam Bankman-Fried
said that he would testify next week before Congress, setting up a high-profile discussion with lawmakers he sought to court before his crypto exchange collapsed into bankruptcy.
Mr. Bankman-Fried said on Twitter that he would appear before the House Committee on Financial Services. The committee has a hearing scheduled for Tuesday at 10 a.m. ET to investigate the collapse of FTX. Mr. Bankman-Fried will most likely testify remotely, according to a person familiar with the matter.
John J. Ray III, FTX’s new chief executive leading the company in bankruptcy, is listed by the committee as a witness for the hearing. Mr. Bankman-Fried wasn’t listed on Friday morning.
Mr. Bankman-Fried’s decision follows a back-and-forth on Twitter between him and Rep.
Maxine Waters
(D., Calif.), the chairwoman of the committee. Earlier this month, he declined to testify, saying that he wanted to wait until he finished learning and reviewing what caused FTX’s swift downfall last month.
Ms. Waters pushed back on that, tweeting earlier this week: “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.”
The Senate Banking Committee has also scheduled a hearing to probe the FTX collapse next week. Its leaders, Sens.
Sherrod Brown
(D., Ohio) and
Pat Toomey
(R., Penn.), sought to compel Mr. Bankman-Fried through a subpoena to appear if he doesn’t do so voluntarily.
Lawyers said the threat is likely empty given Mr. Bankman-Fried’s location outside the U.S. Mr. Bankman-Fried is living in the Bahamas.
Rep. Maxine Waters has encouraged FTX’s founder to testify about the exchange’s collapse.
Photo:
ELIZABETH FRANTZ/REUTERS
Noting Mr. Bankman-Fried’s plan to appear before the House financial-services committee, Mr. Toomey tweeted Friday that he and Mr. Brown “also expect you at [the Senate Banking Committee] the next day.”
Before the exchange’s collapse, Mr. Bankman-Fried frequently appeared in Washington, testifying before Congress, speaking on panels and mingling with members of Congress and their staffers. Mr. Bankman-Fried sought to influence how his firm and the crypto industry would be policed. Currently, cryptocurrency largely falls outside the rules that govern other aspects of the financial system.
Mr. Bankman-Fried and others who worked for FTX contributed more than $70 million to election campaigns in less than 18 months.
He personally gave some $40 million to politicians and political-action committees ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign donations. Mr. Bankman-Fried was the No. 2 overall top donor to Democrats in 2022 election cycle, only behind
George Soros.
Ryan Salame,
another top FTX executive, donated more than $23 million, mainly to Republicans and conservative groups.
—Alexander Osipovich contributed to this article.
Write to Paul Kiernan at [email protected] and Caitlin Ostroff at [email protected]
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