Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried faces a possible congressional subpoena after failing to respond to a Senate Committee request on the December 8 deadline.
The current crypto villain Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has failed to respond to a request asking him to confirm if he’ll appear at a Senate Committee hearing due next Wednesday. But for some reason, the former FTX CEO missed Thursday’s 5 pm ET deadline. And as a result, he may have failed to show his willingness to be accountable to the American people.
SBF’s decision to ghost the request has also set up the possibility of using a congressional subpoena. For what it’s worth, congressional subpoenas are usually seen as a last resort in testimonies. But having exhausted other reasonable alternatives, and SBF insistent on being uncooperative, then the subpoena might just be enforced.
Besides, the committee earlier confirmed, albeit in clear terms, that if SBF missed the deadline, he’ll not be let off the hook. According to a shared statement by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Sherrod Brown, and ranking member of the Committee Senator Pat Toomey, “the Committee has requested that he testify at our upcoming hearing on FTX’s collapse, and will consider further action if he does not comply.”
Sam Bankman-Fried and His Multiple Hearing Requests
Since the collapse of FTX, the exchange as well as SBF have been subjects of high interest. While the embattled businessman has granted several media interviews to date, he still has a lot to answer to, officially. One of such is the request to appear at the upcoming December 14 hearing. But that’s not the only hearing he has been summoned to so far.
The US House Financial Services Committee has also reportedly invited him to another hearing slated for December 13. That hearing is called “Investigating the Collapse of FTX.” Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried had earlier declined an invitation from the same House on December 5. At the time, he claimed that he was still trying to learn what went wrong with FTX and is not so sure about showing up. However, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, has responded to SBF. Waters, who was the one that first requested that SBF attends the hearing via a Twitter post, suggested that “a subpoena is definitely on the table.” That is in the event that Bankman-Fried fails to turn up to testify at the hearing.
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