I was just reading an article featuring Maxine Waters who had wanted to subpoena Sam to testify before the House (and the Senate did as well) but was arrested the day before he was to testify, surprising Waters and others. Do you think this timing is suspicious? Did the Feds (or others behind the collapse of FTX) not want Sam to testify?
Appreciate any thoughts on this.
Very suspicious. It sounds like an attempt to suppress Sam’s version of events, leaving the floor to John Ray.
Maxine Waters hints that the timing was suspicious too:
Mr. Bankman-Fried agreed to appear before our Committee at that same hearing before his arrest by the Bahamian authorities, acting on the request of the DOJ, made that impossible…I am troubled that nearly two months since that first hearing with Mr. Ray, our Committee has not prioritized obtaining Mr. Bankman-Fried’s testimony, nor anyone else’s testimony, or any relevant documents from FTX about the events leading up to the failure of FTX and the efforts to return funds to investors
Others from the US House Financial Services Committee were even more explicit:
The timing of the charges and his arrest raise serious questions about the SEC’s process and cooperation with the Department of Justice
(Incidentally, I noticed today that the SEC’s top enforcement official Gurbir Grewal is leaving, marking the end of his three-year tenure.)