Elon Musk helps concept of Sam Bankman-Fried going to jail over FTX collapse

Each the Division of Justice and the SEC are reported to be investigating the downfall of FTX, the crypto trade Bankman-Fried based and ran as CEO.

Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest individual and CEO of each Tesla and Twitter, is likely one of the newest distinguished enterprise figures to weigh in on the FTX catastrophe—and its penalties for Bankman-Fried, who’s also called SBF.

In a Tweet on Saturday, Musk mentioned he “agreed” with one other Twitter consumer who advised SBF “doesn’t want any extra mentioning aside from his court docket date.”

“Let’s simply give him an grownup timeout within the massive home and transfer on,” Musk replied.

Taking to Twitter on Sunday, Bankman-Fried mentioned he would testify earlier than the U.S. Home Committee on Monetary Providers, though he added that he wished to “end studying and reviewing what occurred” at FTX earlier than doing so. He didn’t specify how lengthy he thought this studying course of would take.

SBF resigned as FTX’s CEO on Nov. 11—the day the crypto trade filed for chapter. He has since been accused of utilizing prospects’ cash to plug losses, and to fund dangerous bets at his buying and selling agency Alameda Analysis, claims he has denied.

Within the aftermath of the $32 billion trade’s spectacular implosion, Bankman-Fried has tried to color an image of him as an inexperienced entrepreneur who fell sufferer to a “failure of oversight.”

“I didn’t ever attempt to commit fraud,” Bankman-Fried mentioned in his first reside interview since FTX’s collapse. “I didn’t knowingly commingle funds.”

It isn’t unlawful within the U.S. to be an incompetent CEO—however authorized specialists advised CNBC on Monday that SBF may face a complete host of civil and prison lawsuits.

To this point, nevertheless, he has not been charged with any crimes.

‘He must be prosecuted’

Musk’s ideas on the matter echo remarks made by different high-profile entrepreneurs and traders over the previous week.

Talking at a cryptocurrency occasion final week, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong argued there was “a really open and shut case for fraud” when it got here to SBF’s destroy.

“It’s baffling to me why he’s not in custody already,” he mentioned.

In the meantime, billionaire Dallas Mavericks proprietor Mark Cuban mentioned in an interview with TMZ that Bankman-Fried must be “afraid of going to jail for a very long time.”

“I assumed he was sensible, however boy, I had no concept he was going to take different folks’s cash and put it to his private use,” Cuban mentioned. “That certain…looks like what occurred.”

Billionaire investor Mike Novogratz additionally mentioned not too long ago that FTX’s former chief ought to face jail time over the corporate’s implosion.

“Sam was delusional about what occurred and his culpability in it,” he told CNBC on Thursday. “He must be prosecuted. He’ll spend time in jail. And it wasn’t simply Sam. You don’t pull this off with one individual.”

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