The NY times did an interview with SBF yesterday that "stretched past midnight".
Here are some quotes from the article:
“Had I been a bit more concentrated on what I was doing, I would have been able to be more thorough,” he said. “That would have allowed me to catch what was going on on the risk side.”
Mr. Bankman-Fried, who is based in the Bahamas, declined to comment on his current location, citing safety concerns. Lawyers for FTX and Mr. Bankman-Fried did not respond to requests for comment.
"Meanwhile, at a meeting with Alameda employees on Wednesday, Ms. Ellison explained what had caused the collapse, according to a person familiar with the matter. Her voice shaking, she apologized, saying she had let the group down. Over recent months, she said, Alameda had taken out loans and used the money to make venture capital investments, among other expenditures.
Around the time the crypto market crashed this spring, Ms. Ellison explained, lenders moved to recall those loans, the person familiar with the meeting said. But the funds that Alameda had spent were no longer easily available, so the company used FTX customer funds to make the payments. Besides her and Mr. Bankman-Fried, she said, two other people knew about the arrangement: Mr. Singh and Mr. Wang."
I "gifted" this article here, but if it doesn't work for some reason, I can post it again in the comments.
Edited to add an extra quote
I find his risk quote most concerning. I don’t really even get it to be honest.
How on one hand can you bet big on upside, and on the other not be concentrated enough on what you’re doing to see what’s going on with risk? Let alone in financial markets!
Feels like an absolute bastardization of any reasonable approach to EV wrt decision making.
Maybe this was the crux of problem… yet somehow he’s turning it into his excuse.