🧴 Sam Brotection Factor?

Today’s the day Sam Bankman-Fried should testify to the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC). Except he won’t be doing that as he just got arrested. Curious timing or judicial progress?

• Yesterday John Ray released a pre-prepared statement for today’s hearing. The CEO in charge of FTX’s bankruptcy stated that they had stored user funds without encryption and commingled assets.
• Before SBF could testify though, Bahamian authorities made the arrest. Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that the arrest had been made “at the request of the U.S. Government“.
• Maxine Waters, Chairwoman of the HFSC, issued a statement saying she was ‘surprised’. She also said the “American public deserves to hear directly” from SBF and was ‘disappointed’ this would not happen as planned.
• The New York Times ran an article claiming he had been charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering. In addition, the SEC also announced separate charges for securities violations.
• However, Twitter cynics voiced concerns the local arrest might be protection from having to testify. SBF has been on a media tour, which may not have helped him legally. In his last interview with Unusual Whales, he said he was ‘quite overbooked’, but did not fear arrest in the U.S.

Crypto influencer Ben Cohen left it up to ChatGPT to deliver the final verdict. He said “Write a poem about SBF, the CEO of FTX, who was arrested in the Bahamas for wire fraud”.