Sam Bankman Fried has agreed to testify before the House Committee

The answer to whether embattled FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fred will be brought before two congressional committees next week on Twitter.

in Post early morning on twitter On Friday, mr. Bankman-Fried said he will appear on Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committee, after days of equivocation on the issue. The hearing will focus on The sudden collapse last month of FTX, which is a cryptocurrency exchange made by Mr. Bankman-Fried was founded, amid allegations of misappropriation of billions in customer funds.

the master. Bankman-Fried, 30, said in a Twitter post that “there is a limit to what I can say, and I won’t be as helpful as I want to be.”

Since then FTX and its associated companies It filed for bankruptcy last month, the master. Bankman-Fried was holed up in his apartment complex in the Bahamas, where FTX was headquartered. He has given numerous media interviews both in person in the Bahamas and via Zoom to talk about the collapse of the once popular cryptocurrency trading platform.

It is not clear if he will appear in person before the House committee.

the master. Bankman-Fried did not address a separate request from the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs to appear before senators the next day.

In a letter sent Wednesday, a Senate committee gave the master. Pinkman Fried until five o’clock Thursday evening to respond to a request to testify next Wednesday. The committee leaders issued a statement on Thursday evening stating that A. Bankman Fried’s attorney missed the deadline.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and chair of the committee, said in the letter to Mr. Bankman-Fried that if a cryptocurrency trader is unwilling to speak to the committee, he is willing to issue a subpoena to compel him to testify.

spokesman for mr. Bankman Fried and his attorney, Mark Cohen, declined to comment on what was behind the post on Twitter. Senate committee representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Over the past two weeks, Mr. Bankman-Fried has been on a media tour, giving interviews to various news outlets and posting messages on Twitter. He has said over and over again that he never intended to defraud anyone – including FTX’s estimated 1 million customers.

the master. Bankman-Fried said he was not directly involved in trading decisions at Alameda Research, a hedge fund he co-founded and largely owns. Just before FTX filed for bankruptcy, it was revealed that billions in the exchange’s client funds had apparently been funneled to Alameda.

With federal prosecutors and securities regulators investigating the collapse of FTX, the stakes are much higher for the master. Bankman-Fried refused to testify before a congressional committee rather than speak to the media. Statements made to a reporter do not carry the same legal weight as testimony given before Congress.

the master. Bankman-Fried was active in politics, where he was She donated about $40 million For federal campaigns and committees that have primarily supported Democrats, according to FEC records.