Sam, a bully rather than an uncle? – The revelations made by the former director of FTX USA against Sam Bankman-Fried they are far from flattering. In the light events of last November, the latter don’t even surprise us anymore. All the details.
Brett Harrison and Sam Bankman-Fired, the emergence of conflict
Former FTX US head Brett Harrison revealed on Jan. 14 the reverse of his relationship with FTX head Sam Bankman-Fried. And, the one who he left a few weeks before the FTX cataclysm assures that they were far from being in good shape. It had all started well 17 months earlier. Working at FTX US at the time was the “dream job” in his own words.
It all started in March 2021 when Sam asked him to come to work in his box via a simple text message. Both former colleagues within the trading company Via JaneBrett had fond memories of him. Sam Bankman-Fried he was then a promising trader who had “done particularly well in the trader programming courses” that Brett Harrison was then teaching.
Harrison had enjoyed working for the specialist cryptographic entity on Jane Street. He was therefore particularly enthusiastic about the idea of taking the plunge. In his own words, his first six months in the box were excellent. He was responsible for defining the legal and compliance aspects of the operations in order to build a regulated exchange according to the requirements of US law. But the dream didn’t last.
“From the beginning, I noticed that despite the fact that Sam knew very little about our activities on the US side, from the Bahamas they could make important decisions at any moment, without warning. [siège social de FTX.com]. »
Disagreements began to emerge between Brett and Sam, just as FTX US boss Harrison began hinting at the idea of separating FTX US’s executive, legal, and development teams from parent company FTX.com. This in order to obtain total independence. Sam Bankman-Fried disagreed.
“I saw in this first conflict appear his lack of confidence and his intransigence when his decisions are questioned, his wickedness and the fluctuations of his temperament. »
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FTX bully Sam Bankman-Fried
“Like many of us, I have family and friends who live with addiction and mental health issues, and I’ve seen these issues manifest unexpectedly in adulthood. I thought then that it might be a factor.” [de l’état de Sam Bankman-Fried]and first I felt compassion [pour lui]. »
However, Sam continued to make decisions about FTX’s US business that Brett totally disagree. “There was tremendous pressure not to disagree with Sam, but I did it anyway. And Brett Harrison wasn’t the only one. FTX US was teeming with professionals from financial, legal and regulated exchange institutions.
“Our collective and professional experience has often been treated as irrelevant and worthless. It has been extremely frustrating for all of us. »
Gradually isolated from the decision-making process, Brett Harrison made one last attempt in April 2022. In a complaint, he highlighted the organizational problems that jeopardize the success of FTX. And he adds that he would resign if these are not properly addressed.
“In response, I was threatened by Sam that I would be fired and my professional reputation would be destroyed. I was told to retract and apologize to Sam.”
It was then that Brett Harrison made the decision to leave. focus on your business. As he recalls in his thread, she never imagined that a scam worth several tens of billions of dollars was being built behind the scenes with the money of the platform’s customers.
“If one of us [chez FTX US] had been aware [des manigances de Sam Bankman-Fried et son cercle fermé], we would have sent it back immediately. »
The FTX case keeps spilling ink. While Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty and says he’s right “from fault to misfortune”FTX liquidators would be able to find assets of more than $5 billion.
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