The former President of FTX US, Brett Harrison, attacked Sam Bankman-Fried for lying and threatening colleagues who proposed a solution to reorganize the management structure of FTX US.
Harrison together his experience with Bankman-Fried and FTX US on December 14, explaining how he was hired “casually via text” in March 2021 after working together at a trading firm on New York’s Jane Street for several years.
But six months into Harrison’s tenure at FTX US, “cracks began to form” between the two, he said.
Despite remembering Bankman-Fried as a “sensitive and curious person” at first, Harrison said he saw “total insecurity and intransigence” in Bankman-Fried in the face of conflict, especially when Harrison proposed that FTX US create separate branches for executives, developers and teams legal.
16/49 I saw in the initial conflict that total insecurity and intransigence when decisions are questioned, spitefulness, and volatility of temperament. I realized he wasn’t who I remembered.
– Brett Harrison (@BrettHarrison88) January 14, 2023
Harrison added that he is “not sure what caused the dramatic change” in Bankman-Fried’s erratic behavior, though he suspects mental health issues may have been a “contributing factor.”
Part of the irrational behavior described by Harrison included a series of gaslighting and manipulation tactics Bankman-Fried used against Harrison and other colleagues in an attempt to clean up the FTX US corporate mess.
Harrison also recalled his last attempt to fix the FTX US organization’s problems with Bankman-Fried, admitting that he threatened to “damage my professional reputation” if a formal apology was not accepted:
29/49 In response, I am threatened with death, on behalf of Sam that I will be fired and that Sam will damage his professional reputation. I was told to officially retract what I had written and apologize to Sam for what he had done to me.
– Brett Harrison (@BrettHarrison88) January 14, 2023
Harrison said the show “reinforced” his decision to go.
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As for the fraud allegations now leveled against Bankman-Fried and other FTX associates, Harrison said he was blindsided by the company’s alleged commingling and misappropriation of billions of dollars of customer funds:
“I couldn’t have imagined that a problem like this – which I’ve seen in other more mature companies in my career and believed to not lead to business success – was a multi-billion dollar fraud.”
“If any of us have any suspicion let alone learn the truth, we will report it immediately,” he said.
Bankman-Fried was granted bail after posting a $250 million surety bond and pleading not guilty to all eight criminal charges against him on January 3.
Harrison resigned as US President of FTX on September 27 – about five weeks before FTX catastrophically collapsed – where he stated that he was moving to an advisory role.