Tausi Insider

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, attempted to distance himself from suggestion of fraud in his first public appearance since his company’s collapse stunned investors and left creditors facing losses totalling billions of dollars. Speaking at the New York Times’ Dealbook Summit with Andrew Ross Sorkin at what he said was against the advice of his lawyers, Bankman-Fried said that he did not knowingly commingle customer funds on FTX with funds at his proprietary trading firm, Alameda Research. The liquidity crunch at FTX came after Bankman-Fried secretly moved $10-billion of FTX customer funds to Alameda Research, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. At least $1 billion in customer funds had vanished, the people said. Bankman-Fried told Reuters the company did not “secretly transfer” but rather misread its “confusing internal labelling. FTX filed for bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried stepped down as chief executive on...

Sam Bankman-Fried speaks at the Crypto Bahamas conference in Nassau on April 27. ERIKA P. RODRIGUEZ /The New York Times News Service The Bahamas police have arrested former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, the country’s attorney general said on Monday, adding that the Bahamas has received formal notification from the United States of criminal charges against him. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan confirmed Bankman-Fried had been arrested in the Bahamas but declined to comment on what the charges were. “As a result of the notification received and the material provided therewith, it was deemed appropriate for the Attorney General to seek SBF’s arrest and hold him in custody pursuant to our nation’s Extradition Act,” the office of The Bahamas Attorney General Ryan Pinder said. A lawyer for Bankman-Fried could not immediately be reached for comment. In a series of interviews and public appearances in late November and December, Bankman-Fried acknowl...

Almost US$125-billion worth of assets, from performance losses left the hedge fund industry in 2022, Hedge Fund Research (HFR) data showed on Friday in the latest sign of the havoc that volatility wreaked on the industry last year. Investors rethought putting their money into hedge funds, leading to a net outflow of US$55-billion in assets, making it the largest capital flight from the industry since 2016, HFR said. A sharp change from 2021, when the industry saw a positive US$15-billion of net inflows. High inflation, aggressive central bank interest rate-hikes and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine roiled world markets last year, with investors across asset classes having to navigate a level of volatility not seen in years. Investors took US$40.4-billion out of hedge funds that buy and sell stocks, which is also the strategy that posted the worst performance numbers, losing US$112.5-billion. Despite the combined strong performance of funds which trade on macro-economic indicators, instit...