Prime Exec Referred to as Sam Bankman-Fried a Fraud Months Earlier than FTX Crash

• CME Group CEO Terry Duffy stated he known as Sam Bankman-Fried a “absolute fraud” in March.
• “Immediately my suspicions had been up,” Duffy instructed CNBC on Tuesday.
• Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO and FTX filed for chapter 11 chapter on November 11.

Terry Duffy, the chief govt of CME Group, stated the primary time he met Sam Bankman-Fried he known as him out as a fraud. 

“Immediately my suspicions had been up,” Duffy instructed CNBC on Tuesday, after he initially recounted his assembly with Bankman-Fried final week on the “On the Tape” podcast. “After which once I met with [Bankman-Fried], I knew immediately this a joke, that is completely going nowhere.”

Earlier than his assembly with Bankman-Fried, Duffy stated he met with the top of the Commodities Futures Buying and selling Fee to ask why it was contemplating Bankman-Fried’s software to ease regulatory guidelines for his buying and selling mannequin, because it concerned nice threat.

FTX filed for chapter and Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO on November 11. Commentators have in contrast the collapse of the corporate to the 2008 downfall of Lehman Brothers. 

“You are a fraud, you are an absolute fraud,” Duffy stated he instructed Bankman-Fried on the assembly in March earlier this yr. 

The crypto trade is now beginning its chapter listening to in Delaware, and FTX may have greater than one million collectors it owes cash to. 

Duffy stated Bankman-Fried, whereas sitting at a bar, requested him why he would not let FTX develop. 

“You may see there have been so many alternative crimson flags,” he stated. “I instructed my workforce this had nothing to do with crypto. He needed to checklist all asset lessons, mine, the Intercontinental, the CME and all people else’s, below his mannequin which might have been, as I stated, a biblical catastrophe.”

Now, Duffy stated he needs to know the place the cash got here from for issues like FTX’s political donations, luxurious properties, and different purchases. He wonders if these are buyer funds or income from the crypto trade. 

“Who’s cash had been they spending, unsuspecting purchasers’?” Duffy stated. “Plenty of questions should be answered.”