DealBook Summit

Elon Musk to advertisers trying to ‘blackmail’ X — ‘Go fuck yourself’

The billionaire X owner lashed out at advertisers ditching the platform due to his controversial posts.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is making the headlines again, this time for an expletive-laden outburst on live TV at an annual conference hosted by The New York Times.

Speaking at the 2023 DealBook Summit in New York on Nov. 29, Elon Musk, the owner of micro-blogging platform X (formerly Twitter), lashed out at advertisers leaving the social media site due to antisemitic posts he amplified.

Recently, Musk publicly endorsed what the White House labeled “antisemitic and racist hate” on the platform, which he has since apologized for.

However, when interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin asked about advertisers leaving the platform, Musk stated:

“If someone is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself …. Is that clear? I hope it is.”

Musk also shouted out to Disney CEO Bob Iger, who was reportedly in the audience, saying “Hi Bob!” since the company was one of several advertisers that have left X.

Legal professionals astonished as SBF admits failures, apologizes 12 times in interview

The former FTX CEO has offered multiple apologies and admitted failings at least a dozen times during the one-hour interview.

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried apologized or admitted failure at least 12 times during his appearance at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit on Nov. 30. 

In a wide-ranging video interview, Bankman-Fried was asked to answer a number of questions surrounding the downfall of the now-defunct exchange, with some even suggesting that some of his statements could be used to incriminate him in legal proceedings.

In a Nov. 30 Twitter post, crypto attorney Jeremy Hogan, partner at Hogan & Hogan, said that the “light cross-examination” of Bankman-Fried at the DealBook Summit has already returned “at least 3 incriminating statements so far.”

Alan Rosca from the law firm Rosca Scarlato said it was “pretty astonishing that he’s in effect testifying at the DealBook summit. Hard to think of a precedent for this.”

Bankman-Fried’s first concession came while greeting interviewer Andrew Sorkin, when he said in reference to the collapse of FTX:

“Clearly, I made a lot of mistakes or things I would give anything to be able to do over again.”

An apology came moments later when Sorkin confronted him with a letter written by an FTX customer who lost $2 million in life savings after the exchange collapsed.

“I’m deeply sorry about what happened,” said Bankman-Fried in response to the customer’s story.

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried during the hour-long live-video appearance. Source: New York Times’ DealBook Summit.

Later, when discussing the allegations that Alameda used FTX client funds to cover loans, Bankman-Fried said that while he “didn’t know exactly what was going on” at Alameda, he concedes it was still his duty as FTX CEO to “make sure I was doing diligence.”

“A lot of these are things that I’ve learned over the last month that I learned […] I mark that as a pretty big oversight that I wasn’t more aware of,” he said.

Bankman-Fried admitted failure again when quizzed about FTXs former standing in the industry and the loss of trust in crypto now that the exchange has collapsed, stating: “I mean, like, look, I screwed up:”

“I was CEO, I was the CEO of FTX. And I mean I say this again and again, that that means I had a responsibility that means that I was responsible ultimately for doing the right things and I mean, we didn’t. Like, we messed up big.”

He continued to concede FTX’s failings, stating “there absolutely were management failures” oversight failures, and transparency failures.

Toward the end of the interview, Sorkin directly asked Bankman-Fried whether he had been truthful with the audience and whether he agreed that there had been times that he had lied. 

Bankman-Fried said he wasn’t aware of any times that he lied, but explained that there were times when asking as a representative or “marketer” for FTX, that he would paint FTX “as compelling […] as possible.”

“I wasn’t talking about what are the risks involved with FTX […] I obviously wish that I spent more time dwelling on the downsides and less time thinking about the upsides.

Related: ‘I never opened the code for FTX:’ SBF has long, candid talk with vlogger

Bankman Fried was asked what his lawyers are telling him at the moment, and whether it was a good idea for him to be speaking publicly. He answered, “very much not:”

“I mean, you know, the classic advice, don’t say anything […] recede into a hole.”

Bankman-Fried said he believes he has a duty to talk to people and explain what happened and to “try and do what’s right.”

“I don’t see what good is accomplished by me just sitting locked in a room pretending the outside world doesn’t exist,” he explained.

“Soft-balled it,” says community

While the interview appeared to cover a number of confronting issues for Bankman-Fried, some in the community still believe that the questions were not challenging enough, nor was there an adequate follow-up to some of the hard-hitting questions.

A Twitter poll launched by self-proclaimed crypto trader Cantering Clark found that more than half of the 1,119 respondents believed Sorkin “Soft-balled” the interview with Bankman-Fried.

Sam Bankman-Fried confronted over the fall of FTX in live interview

Sam Bankman-Fried was speaking at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit live on Nov. 30.

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has made his first live public appearance since the collapse of FTX — answering a number of questions during the DealBook Summit in New York on Nov. 30. 

The hour-long interview was conducted on stage by New York Times journalist Andrew Sorkin, speaking to Bankman-Fried via video conference.

The pair discussed many subjects, including whether FTX and Alameda Research were commingling customer funds, what Bankman-Fried would say to customers who lost everything in FTX and whether he was concerned about being held criminally liable for its downfall.

Sam Bankman-Fried speaking at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit. Source: The New York Times

Commingling of funds

In one of the earlier parts of the interview, Bankman-Fried claimed to have “unknowingly commingled funds” between Alameda and customer funds at FTX.

In this instance, the “commingling” referred to the customers’ funds deposited with FTX and loaned to its sister company Alameda. Sorkin referred to a submission sent in by a viewer earlier, which pointed out that this happened despite FTX’s terms of service stating that customers’ digital assets it holds are not its property and that it would not act as if they were.

Sorkin noted, “There appears to be a genuine commingling of the funds that are FTX customers’ that were not supposed to be commingled with your separate firm.”

Bankman-Fried, however, denied knowing about the commingled funds and blamed it on poor oversight.

“I unknowingly commingled funds. […] I was frankly surprised by how big Alameda’s position was, which points to another failure of oversight on my part and failure to appoint someone to be chiefly in charge of that,” said Bankman-Fried, adding:

“But I wasn’t trying to commingle funds.”

Bankman-Fried also appeared to deflect blame for the actions of Alameda, claiming he wasn’t privy to all the goings-on at the firm. 

“I wasn’t running Alameda. I didn’t know exactly what [was] going on. I didn’t know the size of their position,” he said.

Criminal liability

Sorkin queried Bankman-Fried about whether he was concerned about his criminal liability at this point, which the former CEO responded to by suggesting it’s not his focus, noting:

“I don’t think that I personally have, you know, [criminal liability.] […] But I think the real answer is that’s not what I’m focusing on.”

Bankman-Fried continued to say that while he’s had a “bad month,” he’s not thinking about his own future, and what matters is trying to do everything he can to help customers and stakeholders of FTX.

He was also asked later in the interview what his lawyers were currently telling him and whether they thought he should be speaking in public.

To the laughter of the audience, Bankman-Fried replied “very much not,” and while suggesting he was given the classic advice of not to say anything, added:

“I have a duty to talk to people, I have a duty to explain what happened and I think I have a duty to do everything I can to try and do what’s right.”

Misleading the public

When asked when he knew there was a problem at FTX, Bankman-Fried suggested that “the time that I really knew there was a problem was November 6.”

However, some in the community have already pointed out that Bankman-Fried had said as recently as Nov. 7 — in a tweet that has since been deleted — that “FTX is fine. Assets are fine,” and had suggested that a competitor was “trying to go after us with false rumors.”

In another Nov. 7 now-deleted tweet, he asserted that FTX has enough to cover all client holdings, doesn’t invest client holdings and would continue to process all withdrawals.

Sorkin pressed Bankman-Fried on this point later in the interview, with the former CEO saying:

“When you look at November 6, I was feeling nervous, but I felt like things were probably going to end up okay.”

Sorkin also pressed Bankman-Fried on the funds that went missing from the exchange shortly after FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with the former FTX CEO briefly touching on this by giving the caveat that he was being cut off from FTX’s systems at this point.

He then went on to provide the “answer to the extent that I know it,” which was that the FTX US team and Bahamian regulators had both seized some, in addition to some “actual improper access,” which he could not provide details on.

Related: FTX proves MiCA should be passed fast, officials tell European Parliament committee

FTX famously imploded earlier this month after a liquidity crunch led to it halting customer withdrawals and subsequently filing for bankruptcy on Nov. 11.

The former ”white knight” of cryptocurrency has since shown up in a range of media appearances since he stepped down as CEO.

It is understood that much of the liquidity crisis was due to Alameda using client funds to cover loans that were being recalled due to the credit crunch caused by the collapse of Terra.