The new CEO of failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX told Congress Tuesday the company collapsed from shoddy management and “old-fashioned embezzlement,” as lawmakers awash in the firm’s campaign donations pointed fingers at the Securities and Exchange Commission for lax oversight of the crypto industry.
John Ray III, a corporate restructuring specialist who took over FTX last month, called the collapse one of the worst business failures he has seen — a “paperless bankruptcy,” fueled by an “utter lack of record-keeping.”
Comparing it with the failure of Enron and the Bernie Madoff investment scandal, he said a firm that once had a market valuation of about $32 billion lost nearly all of the money from more than 1 million investors.