Current
FTX
CEO
John
J.
Ray
III
is
pushing
back
against
his
disgraced
predecessor
Sam
Bankman-Fried’s
claims
that
customers
lost
“zero”
money
in
the
exchange’s
2022
collapse,
calling
them
“categorically,
callously,
and
demonstrably
false.”
In
a
victim
impact
statement
penned
by
Ray
on
behalf
of
FTX
and
its
subsidiaries,
Ray
told
New
York
District
Court
Judge
Lewis
Kaplan
that
Bankman-Fried’s
“delusional”
claims
that
his
exchange
was
solvent
are
a
“mischaracterization”
of
the
estate’s
January
statement
that
they
expect
to
pay
customers
back
in
full.
Bankman-Fried
and
his
legal
team
have
leaned
heavily
on
the
estate’s
recovery,
arguing
in
his
February
sentencing
submission
that
the
“harm
to
customers,
lenders,
and
investors
is
zero”
and,
as
such,
Judge
Kaplan
should
consider
a
maximum
sentence
of
6.5
years
in
prison
–
far
less
than
the
40-50
year
sentence
recommended
by
prosecutors
or
the
100
year
sentence
suggested
by
the
probation
department.
But
just
because
the
FTX
estate
was
able
to
scrape
together
enough
money
to
pay
back
the
exchange’s
customers
– massively
aided
by
the
run-up
in
bitcoin’s
price
as
well
as
the
“tens
of
thousands
of
hours…spent
digging
through
the
rubble
of
Mr.
Bankman-Fried’s
sprawling
criminal
enterprise
to
unearth
every
possible
dollar,
token,
or
other
asset”
– does
not
mean
that
Bankman-Fried’s
behavior
was
not
criminal,
Ray
argued.
Ray
told
the
court
that,
when
he
took
over,
the
exchange’s
coffers
were
nearly
empty
– a
mere
105
bitcoins
remained
on
the
platform,
compared
with
the
nearly
100,000
bitcoins
customers
were
entitled
to.
Some
of
the
lost
assets
were
recovered,
Ray
said,
while
others,
including
bribes
to
Chinese
officials
and
the
“hundreds
of
millions
of
dollars”
Bankman-Fried
spent
on
various
investments
or
buying
access
to
celebrities
and
politicians
are
gone
for
good.
“The
harm
was
vast.
The
remorse
is
nonexistent,”
Ray
wrote
in
the
Wednesday
court
filing.
“Effective
altruism,
at
least
as
lived
by
Sam
Bankman-Fried,
was
a
lie.”
Ray
told
the
court
that,
despite
the
current
plan
to
get
their
money
back,
many
of
FTX’s
customers
remain
“extremely
unhappy”
with
the
valuation
of
their
funds.
Because
customers
will
be
refunded
based
on
the
value
of
their
portfolios
at
the
time
of
the
bankruptcy
– not
today’s
much
higher
value
– they
will
“never
be
returned
to
the
same
economic
position
they
would
have
been
in
today
absent
[Bankman-Fried’s]
colossal
fraud,”
Ray
argued.
In
their
own
victim
impact
statements
filed
earlier
this
week,
dozens
of
FTX
customers
detailed
the
emotional
and
financial
toll
the
exchange’s
collapse
had
on
their
personal
lives.
“There
should
be
no
delusion
that
because
assets
have
increased
in
value
or
that
the
professionals
have
been
able
to
recover
funds
and
assets
taken
or
stolen
from
the
estate,
that
there
was
no
need
[to
file
for
bankruptcy],”
Ray
wrote.
“Make
no
mistake;
customers,
non-governmental
creditors,
governmental
creditors,
and
non-insider
stockholders
have
suffered
and
continue
to
suffer.”
Bankman-Fried
is
scheduled
to
be
sentenced
on
March
28.