FTX founder Bankman-Fried to testify before U.S. House panel

Maxine Waters, the chair of the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, stated to Reuters on Thursday that she was ready to issue a subpoena to Bankman-Fried if he declined to show up for the hearing the committee is hosting as part of its investigation into FTX.

The panel said late on Friday that it would hear on Tuesday from Bankman-Fried, the founder and previous CEO of FTX, as well as John Ray, the newly appointed CEO of FTX.

"I still can't access a lot of my data, either personal or professional. So I won't be as helpful as I'd like, and there are limits to what I can say," Bankman-Fried wrote on Twitter on Friday.

However, he continued, "if the committee still believes it would be helpful, I am willing to testify on the 13th."

The hybrid hearing will take place on Tuesday at 10 a.m. ET (1500 GMT), according to the committee.

U.S. authorities have requested information from FTX investors and potential investors recently, according to two persons familiar with the inquiries who spoke to Reuters. Bankman-Fried has not been accused of any crimes by the prosecution or the authorities.

According to Bloomberg late on Friday, U.S. Justice Department representatives met with FTX's court-appointed overseers this week to discuss whether hundreds of millions of dollars were improperly transferred to the Bahamas, where FTX is headquartered, around the same time that the cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy in Delaware.

Requests for comment on the article from Reuters were not immediately answered by FTX or the Justice Department.

After traders withdrew $6 billion from the site in just three days and rival exchange Binance abandoned a rescue plan, struggling cryptocurrency pioneers FTX filed for bankruptcy last month and Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO.

The heated competition for market dominance in the months leading up to FTX's demise between Bankman-Fried and Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, was covered in depth by Reuters last month.

Following a series of tweets by Zhao, friction between the two broke out in public once more on Friday.

Zhao claimed that Bankman-Fried launched "offensive tirades" against members of the Binance team when Binance, an early investor in FTX, tried to sell its interest more over one and a half years ago.

Last year, Binance returned its investment in the business to FTX.

Bankman-Fried responded in writing, saying: "We started discussions about buying you out, and we chose to do it since it was crucial for our business.

If we didn't contribute an additional $75 million, "you threatened to leave at the last minute," he continued. "Most of the tokens/equity were still locked; you didn't even have the rights to withdraw as an investor unless we elected to buy you out."

Not that it matters at this time. Additionally, if we don't want to sell, you can't make us," Zhao retorted.

"There was never a match or a fight. Everyone lost.