Bill Ackman refuted charges that he was supporting Sam Bankman-Fried after tweeting that Bankman-explanations Fried’s for FTX’s failure were “believable.”
Following Bankman-extensive Fried’s interview at the New York Times DealBook Summit, the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management drew attention last week when he said, “Call me crazy, but I believe @sbf is speaking the truth”
Ackman, who Forbes estimates to be worth $3.5 billion, attempted to clarify his statements on Saturday.
“I was a participant…
I tweeted that I believed SBF to be credible.
Many have misconstrued my tweet as me defending SBF or supporting him in any way. Nothing could be farther from the truth, tweeted the hedge fund guru.
He stated in the line of tweets that the FTX affair was the most egregious instance of “gross carelessness” he had ever witnessed.
Bill Ackman, a millionaire hedge fund manager, has stated that he never defended Sam Bankman-Fried.
Ackman tweeted, “The @FTX Official debacle is, at a minimum, the most egregious, large-scale example of corporate gross negligence I have encountered in my career, and SBF’s recent public pronouncements support this judgment.”
During an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin on Wednesday, Bankman-Fried denied any wrongdoing, stating that he did not “knowingly commingle” assets between his cryptocurrency exchange and FTX’s sibling trading business, Alameda Research.
“I clearly made several errors. There are certain activities I would do everything to redo. “I never attempted to defraud anyone,” Bankman-Fried stated.
Ackman did add on Saturday that if Bankman-Fried “is speaking the truth, it might increase the likelihood that he has civil culpability as opposed to criminal liability.”
The attempts of Ackman to reframe his remarks were received with scepticism. Liquidity, a popular financial meme account, remarked, “sick backpedal.”
Unusual Whales, a separate account that tracks trade activities, published a screenshot from early November in which Ackman praised Bankman-Fried for “his responsibility.”
Sam Bankman-Fried stated that he did not “knowingly commingle” Alameda and FTX monies.
Bloomberg Images via Getty
Ackman stated that he had “never before witnessed a CEO take responsibility” in the same manner as Bankman-Fried.
A Pershing square spokeswoman did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice are conducting investigations into FTX, which filed for bankruptcy on November 11.
»Bill Ackman denies protecting Sam Bankman-Fried after FTX disaster«