Former FTX US President Brett Harrison has lashed out at Sam Bankman-Fried for manipulating and threatening colleagues who proposed solutions to reorganize FTX US’ management structure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Harrison shared his experiences with Bankman-Fried and FTX US on Dec. 14, explaining how he was hired \u201ccasually over text\u201d in Mar. 2021 after working together at New York-based trading firm Jane Street for a few years.<\/p>\n
But six months into Harrison’s tenure at FTX US, \u201ccracks began to form\u201d between the two, he said.<\/p>\n
Despite recalling Bankman-Fried to be a \u201csensitive and intellectually curious person\u201d at first, Harrison said he saw \u201ctotal insecurity and intransigence\u201d in Bankman-Fried when confronted with conflict, particularly when Harrison suggested FTX US establish separate branches for its executive, developer and legal teams.<\/p>\n
Harrison added that he \u201cwasn\u2019t sure what accounted for the dramatic change\u201d in Bankman-Fried\u2019s erratic behavior, though he suspected mental health issues may have been a “contributing factor.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Part of that irrational behavior Harrison describes included a series of gaslighting and manipulation tactics Bankman-Fried used against Harrison and other colleagues in their bid to clean up FTX US’ corporate mess.<\/p>\n
Harrison also recalled his last attempt to fix FTX US\u2019 organization issues with Bankman-Fried, claiming that he threatened to \u201cdestroy my professional reputation\u201d if a formally apology wasn\u2019t received:<\/p>\n
Harrison said that event \u201csolidified\u201d his decision to leave.<\/p>\n
Related: <\/em><\/strong>FTX ex-staffer: Extravagant expenditures and cult-like worshipping of SBF<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n As for the fraud charges now laid against Bankman-Fried and other FTX colleagues, Harrison said he was blinded by the firm\u2019s alleged commingling and misuse of billions of dollars of customer funds:<\/p>\n \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><\/blockquote>\n \u201cIf any one of us had suspected let alone learned the truth, we would have reported them immediately,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Bankman-Fried was granted bail after posting a $250 million bond guarantee and pleading not guilty to all eight criminal charges laid against him on Jan. 3. <\/p>\n Harrison stepped down as FTX US President on Sept. 27 \u2014 about five weeks before FTX catastrophically collapsed \u2014 where he stated that he moved into an advisory role.<\/p>\n