Ex-FTX US President Details How SBF Was Manipulative, Spiteful & Gaslighting
Ex-FTX US President Details How SBF Was Manipulative, Spiteful & Gaslighting.
This past weekend, former FTX US President Brett Harrison wrote a long detailed Twitter thread, detailing the reason why he had left the company after working there for 17 months, notably leaving two months before FTX’s major collapse in November.
Manipulation & Gaslighting
Harrison explains that disputes, disagreements, and hostility on Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)’s side over management practices at FTX forced him to leave the role.
According to Harrison, cracks started to appear in the relationship between him and SBF six months into his tenure at the firm. He explains that he first viewed SBF as a “promising” individual but that early conflict caused him to see a dramatic change in Bankman-Fried’s behaviour.
“I saw in that early conflict his [SBF’s] total insecurity and intransigence when his decisions were questioned, his spitefulness, and the volatility of his temperament. I realized he wasn’t who I remembered.” Brett Harrison wrote.
Related: SBF: Fully Returning FTX US Investors’ Money Is Possible!
The former FTX US President also explains that he felt extreme pressure “to not disagree with Sam,” and that FTX US employees were often treated as “irrelevant and valueless,” making it “extremely frustrating” for all staff.
Harrison then explains that as he kept continuing to push for changes in the management and FTX’s system, the more SBF became hostile and manipulative, isolating Harrison from communication altogether.
26/49 Sam was uncomfortable with conflict. He responded at times with dysregulated hostility, at times with gaslighting and manipulation, but ultimately chose to isolate me from communication on key decision-making.
— Brett Harrison (@BrettHarrison88) January 14, 2023
Finally, Harrison detailed how after he had written a formal complaint and threatened to leave FTX if no changes were made, an executive “threatened” Harrison on behalf of SBF. The threat claimed that if Harrison didn’t retract his letter, he would be fired and SBF would “destroy his professional reputation.”
Harrison said he was instructed to retract the complaints and apologize to SBF. This, he explains, was what solidified his decision to leave FTX US.
Charges Against SBF
Harrison also talks about how the news of FTX and SBF’s fraud accusations and the massive collapse of FTX all together has been “difficult for me to assimilate into reality.”
“I never could have guessed that underlying these kinds of issues — which I’d seen at other more mature firms in my career and believed not to be fatal to business success — was multi-billion-dollar fraud.” Harrison wrote.
He also details how he thinks FTX & Alameda’s major fraud scheme was likely the doing of SBF and his small inner circle, explaining that neither he or any other FTX executives were actually involved in.
“I understand now why they carefully concealed their criminal activity from us. We have extensive professional networks, our own lines of communication with US regulators, and our own authority to speak to US media,” Harrison wrote. “If any one of us had suspected let alone learned the truth, we would have reported them immediately.”
36/49 It’s clear from what has been made public that the scheme was held closely by Sam and his inner circle at FTX. com and Alameda, which I was not a part of, nor were other executives at FTX US.
— Brett Harrison (@BrettHarrison88) January 14, 2023
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