In a highly public Twitter rant, former FTX US President Brett Harrison labeled ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried as totally insecure and intransigent, saying his relationship with SBF and his deputies “had reached a point of total deterioration, after months of disputes over management practices at FTX.
Former FTX US president Brett Harrison accused FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)of “gaslighting and manipulation” in a Twitter thread on Jan. 14. Harrison left FTX.US in September 2022, two months before SBF’s crypto empire collapsed. Sharing his experience during the 17 months running FTX US, Harrison said that SBF resorted to cutting him off from critical decisions about the US division of FTX when things soured between the two.
“My relationship with Sam Bankman-Fried and his deputies had reached a point of total deterioration, after months of disputes over management practices at FTX,” Harrison wrote. Harrison recalled working with Bankman-Fried at Jane Street, a global proprietary trading firm based in New York City, in which Bankman-Fried seemed like a promising trader as well as a sensitive and intellectual person. During his first few months as FTX US President, Harrison helped expand the U.S. team and cement professional relationships, such as with the crypto derivatives platform LedgerX.
“Six months into my time at the company, pronounced cracks began to form in my own relationship with Sam. Around then I began advocating strongly for establishing separation and independence for the executive, legal, and developer teams of FTX US, and Sam disagreed.” Harrison added that Bankman-Fried seemed rarely engaged in the U.S. business and that would impart decisions impacting the U.S. without warning from the Bahamas.
A few days ago, Former President of FTX US Brett Harrison has promised to reveal more about collapsed cryptocurrency exchange owned by Sam Bankman-Fried.
“Use powers of inference,” said Harrison, who stepped down from his FTX role in September, before the group’s implosion in November. FTX’s downfall, spurred by a liquidity crisis, has rocked the crypto industry and is dragging on other firms such as Gemini and BlockFi. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to the fraud and other criminal charges against him, linked to a suspected loss of $8 billion in FTX customer funds.
The US authorities investigating the case are reportedly digging deeper into what the company’s executives were aware of. They have doubled down on looking at Bankman-Fried’s inner circle by turning their attention to top engineer, Nishad Singh.
