Giving testimony to a financial services committee FTX's new CEO John J Ray III said the company committed 'old-fashioned embezzlement'. Asked to make a comparison between the energy firm Enron – which declared bankruptcy in 2001 after an accounting scandal – and FTX, Ray told lawmakers that 'this is just taking money from customers and using it for your own purpose. Not sophisticated at all.' He added, 'sophisticated, perhaps in the way they are hiding something, frankly, right in front of their eyes. This is just plain old embezzlement. Old school, old school.'
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former chief executive of FTX has been charged with fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the US and violate campaign finance laws.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried charged with defrauding investors