We somehow lost the overview: How Sam Bankman-Fried blurred the boundaries between FTX and Alameda

Sam Bankman-Fried spoke out of his bed in Nassau at around 3 a.m. on Saturday and dealt with one of the questions that were the focus of the collapse of his 32-billion dollar crypto empire.

The FTX founder insisted that he had shielded FTX for "reasons of interest" in connection with his role as a guardian of customer assets as managing director of the stock exchange from retail and risk management at the retail company Alameda Research.

But in an interview with the Financial Times, he also admitted to being involved in financial decisions at Alameda when he had previously disclosed.

The conversation that the 30-year-old wanted to lead to the Bahamas in his residence in the early morning was part of a crumpled media campaign that Bankman-Fired started last week.

The former Mogul has openly admitted in several interviews, which he called "massive failures", "huge mistakes" and a lack of "strict thinking".

Media hype confused many at a time when the circumstances of the collapse of FTX, one of the largest crypto exchanges, are still examined by at least 1 million creditors, criminal investigators and civil processes.

Bankman-Fried told the FT that he argued that silence could be seen as a "tacit admission of the truth of many theories" that have spread online about his alleged misconduct.

"As far as there is a tactical part of it, I think that things have basically got so far that, frankly, many conspiracy theories were floating around who were not valid," said Bankman-Fried. "And to say it clearly, I grabbed it. I screwed it up and people were hurt. And you didn't need to get a conspiracy theory to get there."

he is accused of in a US lawsuit that his companies are a "ponzi scheme". Managers who lead the company in bankruptcy said in court files that FTX apparently "hid [Ed] abuse of customer funds".

Bankman-Fried contested deliberate misconduct, accused his own “big management error” and said that he only fully recognized FTX's dangerous financial situation days before the forced bankruptcy according to Chapter 11 in Delaware in early November.

He admitted that Alameda has been able to cross the normal credit limits on the FTX exchange since his beginnings.

The core of Bankman-Frieds report on how FTX got a shortfall of around $ 8 billion in customer assets, is the excessive lending of the stock exchange to Alameda, which plowed the money in risk capital investments and failed betting on digital brands.

Bankman-Fried distracted the questions of the FT about the excessive borrowing and the messy investments that Alameda ultimately dropped and tore a hole in the FTX finances, and did not get involved in the legal consequences that could threaten him. He said he had deliberately avoided the trade and risk management of Alameda to avoid conflicts with his position as Chief Executive from FTX, and fails to monitor the risk that they represent for the stock exchange.

He said, however, that in early summer he took part in talks in which Alameda's financial health and borrowing were discussed. Before that, he had indicated that he had only “fully recognized” his precarious situation last month.

"I remember some discussions about Alameda's positions. I don't remember numbers from them. I can't remember that numbers were said to be said that I am not sure if they were not. I think Alameda told something at the time or checked the condition of his position," he said.

He remembered at least one meeting in the FTX office in Nassau after the cryptomarkt crashed in May, in which employees said that the access from Alameda to loans would be restricted and it may have to borrow more from FTX. He said he couldn't remember who took part.

"At that time I had something like an inventory after the crash," he said.

"Alameda had a number of margin positions that were open to various rental shells, generally net long positions," he said, and part of it was transferred to FTX when other lenders withdrew loans, which increased Alameda's liabilities by around 6 billion USD.

When asked how the great increase in Alameda's borrowing at FTX was approved by the stock exchange, he said: "I don't feel good because I don't know the answer."

He said that the company has no chief risk officer who monitors his margin positions, or regulate who has to sign big changes in borrowing. "As a company, we lost sight of the position of position in a fairly large and rather destructive way," he said.

Bankman-Fried also said that he was involved in two of Alameda's largest use of funds: the $ 4 billion that it put in risk capital, and the $ 3 billion it spent on the participation of the competitor Binance to FTX.

"These two add up to a fairly large number," he said, adding that the two uses of cash "the least unsatisfactory answer I could come to", in response to the question of how Alameda paid billions of FTX funds.

He said that at that time he did not know exactly which funds came from the borrowing and not from Alameda's trading profits. But he said that the risk capital investments are "effective, some of them, on margin".

"I regret that. I regret it quite a bit," he added.

Bankman-Fried's attempt to explain what went wrong, was reserved and indicated that his incomplete memory. In his answers, he quoted at least a dozen "trust" and called other answers "empty speculation" or "shitty answers". Once he held his head in his hands for half a minute.

Some observers have interpreted him very publicly Mea Culpas as an honest attempt to remember a situation that quickly got out of control. Others find his explanations unbelievable.

Several former employees who spoke to the FT questioned his representation of FTX as a company that was led by a cliff by the well -intentioned botching team of his mostly young management team.

Ira Sorkin, the lawyer who defended the fraudster Bernard Madoff, told Bloomberg that Bankman-Fried's media campaign was a mistake. "You will not influence the public. The only people who will listen to them are supervisory authorities and prosecutors," he said.

But there are signs that it does something. Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman tweeted this week: "Call me crazy, but I think [Bankman-Fried] says the truth."

Maxine Waters, who will lead later this month to FTX in the Financial Service Committee of the US House of Representatives, said in a tweet that she "estimates" Bankman-Fried's openness and "willingness to speak to the public".

But despite his public explanations, Bankman-Fried said that he did not expect to win people. "I don't expect a positive mood at all," he said. "I don't think I will earn it."