Is Sam Bankman-Fried Planning for a ‘Mentally Distressed’ Defense?

Tweets by former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried are raising various speculations on Twitter

SEC after Sam Bankman-Fried? In less than a week, the cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried went from industry leader to industry villain, lost most of his fortune, saw his $32 billion company plunge into bankruptcy, and became the target of investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department. The latest tweet at the time of writing, posted by Bankman-Fried at 5:30 am UTC on Nov. 15, is Bankman-Fried saying, "this is all as I remember it, but my memory might be faulty in parts."

10) [NOT LEGAL ADVICE. NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE. THIS IS ALL AS I REMEMBER IT, BUT MY MEMORY MIGHT BE FAULTY IN PARTS.]

— SBF (@SBF_FTX) November 15, 2022

The other tweets spell out "What HAPPENED" and were posted across multiple hours.

Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, is currently under the supervision of local authorities in the Bahamas along with cofounder Gary Wang and director of engineering Nishad Singh, Reuters and others have reported. According to one report, Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, who is in Hong Kong, is also planning to leave for Dubai.

Asked about his cryptic tweets in a Nov. 14 interview with the New York Times. Bankman-Fried said, "I'm making it up as I go" and the series of tweets is "going to be more than one word." When asked why he said "I don't know," and added "I'm improvising. I think it's time," seemingly refusing to explain further.

Twitter users instantly took to speculation on the meaning of the tweets, with crypto YouTuber Stephen Findeisen saying he was "on the amphetamines again," possibly in reference to Bankman-Fried discussing experimenting with the amphetamine Adderall on an Oct. 2020 podcast.