{"id":9785,"date":"2023-01-15T16:00:26","date_gmt":"2023-01-15T16:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=9785"},"modified":"2023-01-15T16:00:27","modified_gmt":"2023-01-15T16:00:27","slug":"ex-ftx-us-president-calls-sbf-insecure-spiteful-and-volatile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=9785","title":{"rendered":"Ex-FTX US president calls SBF insecure, spiteful, and volatile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"crypto\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script><br \/>\n   <\/p>\n<p>Former FTX US president Brett Harrison accused FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)of \u201cgaslighting and manipulation\u201d in a Twitter thread on Jan. 14. Harrison left FTX.US in September 2022, two months before SBF\u2019s crypto empire collapsed.<\/p>\n<p>Sharing his experience during the 17 months running FTX US, Harrison said that SBF resorted to cutting him off from critical decisions about the US division of FTX when things soured between the two.<\/p>\n<p>SBF asked his former colleague Harrison to join FTX US \u201ccasually over text\u201d in late March 2021. Harrison joined the firm in May and worked \u201clargely independently\u201d of SBF for the first few months.<\/p>\n<p>But things changed as Harrison noticed that SBF made impactful decisions about FTX US \u201cwithout warning\u201d despite being \u201crarely engaged\u201d in the FTX.US business. As a result, by October 2021, \u201cpronounced cracks\u201d developed between Harrison and SBF, the former wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Harrison began pushing for \u201cestablishing separation and independence\u201d for the executive, legal, and developer teams of FTX US, but SBF disagreed. Harrison wrote:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw in that early conflict his [SBF\u2019s] total insecurity and intransigence when his decisions were questioned, his spitefulness, and the volatility of his temperament. I realized he wasn\u2019t who I remembered.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the time, SBF\u2019s influence over FTX partners, the media, venture capital firms, and the traditional financial industry was \u201cpervasive and unyielding,\u201d Harrison wrote. Moreover, SBF was a prominent political donor and dined with the who\u2019s who of Washington. Detailing his dilemma, Harison added:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStanding up to an insecure, prideful manager is hard under any circumstance. But it\u2019s nearly impossible when every day, every major voice of culture and commerce deafens you with a narrative that implies if you disagree with your manager *you* clearly must be wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harrison stood up to him despite feeling \u201ctremendous pressure not to disagree\u201d with SBF. And he was not the only staff of FTX US who disagreed with SBF\u2019s decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Harrison recounted that the experience and understanding of FTX US employees were frequently treated as \u201cirrelevant and valueless,\u201d which made it \u201cextremely frustrating\u201d for all staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Over the following months, Harrison advocated for implementing a \u201csensible hiring policy\u201d and employing experienced C-suite officers in FTX US. He also pushed for \u201ctransparent communication\u201d between SBF and the leadership team of the US division.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Harrison argued to have FTX co-founder Gary Wang and engineering chief Nishad Singh\u2019s responsibilities \u201cformally identified\u201d and shared among a larger group. Additionally, Harrison suggested expanding \u201cmanagerial responsibility and controls\u201d beyond SBF and his inner circle.<\/p>\n<p>These disagreements elicited an unpalatable response from SBF, Harrison wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSam 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harrison had to scramble to find out information about the decisions made behind his back, \u201cbut trying hard not to show it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In early April 2022, Harrison put up one last fight by making a written formal complaint about what he perceived to be the \u201clargest organizational problems inhibiting FTX\u2019s future success.\u201d In the complaint, he mentioned resigning if the issues were not fixed. <\/p>\n<p>In response, an executive \u201cthreatened\u201d Harrison on behalf of SBF. Harrison was warned that unless he formally withdrew his complaint, he would be sacked and see his professional reputation annihilated by SBF.<\/p>\n<p>Harrison was also asked to deliver an apology to SBF that had been drafted for him. This incident solidified Harrison\u2019s resolve to leave FTX US, he wrote. As a result, he gradually \u201cwound down\u201d instead of going abruptly to avoid impacting the firm negatively and finish ongoing projects.<\/p>\n<p>The revelations of fraud that became public soon after the collapse of FTX are \u201cdifficult for me to assimilate into reality,\u201d Harrison wrote. However, he added that the organizational and management issues he had highlighted during his tenure were typical in growing startups.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never could have guessed that underlying these kinds of issues \u2014 which I\u2019d seen at other more mature firms in my career and believed not to be fatal to business success \u2014 was multi-billion-dollar fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harrison added that the fraud was perpetrated by SBF and his inner circle \u2014 as evident from indictments and guilty pleas \u2014 and that he and other FTX US employees had no part in it.<\/p>\n<p>He stated that the criminal activities were \u201ccarefully concealed\u201d from FTX US executives because these executives had extensive professional networks, \u201cour own lines of communication with US regulators, and our own authority to speak to US media.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harrison said that if any FTX US executives had any suspicions about the criminal activities, they would have immediately informed the authorities.<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"bitcoin\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/ex-ftx-us-president-calls-sbf-insecure-spiteful-and-volatile\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former FTX US president Brett Harrison accused FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)of \u201cgaslighting and manipulation\u201d in a Twitter thread on Jan. 14. Harrison left FTX.US in September 2022, two months before SBF\u2019s crypto empire collapsed. Sharing his experience during the 17 months running FTX US, Harrison said that SBF resorted to cutting him off from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethereum-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9787,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9785\/revisions\/9787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}