‘I didn’t steal funds’, FTX’s SBF says post-arrest

Sam Bankman-Fried said he did not steal money and blamed the collapse of his now-bankrupt FTX exchange on a broad crash in cryptocurrency markets, in a highly unusual blog post on Thursday, a month after his arrest on US fraud charges.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan in December said Bankman-Fried stole billions of dollars from FTX customers to pay debts for his crypto-focused hedge fund, Alameda Research, purchase lavish real estate, and donate to US political campaigns.

He has pleaded not guilty. The Substack blog post — a rare public statement by a US criminal defendant — amounts to a preview of the defense case Bankman-Fried may present when his trial begins on Oct. 2.