An entrepreneur who invested in the early days of the now-bankrupt FTX is putting the onus on the disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried after burning a $2 million hole in his pocket.
"This was a con. Sam Bankman-Fried is a fraud. He committed fraud," Evan Singh Luthra said on "Mornings with Maria" Monday. "You would not have expected this to turn out the way it has happened. So this was not a risk I was taking when I was investing, this was somebody like Sam Bankman-Fried who committed a crime."
Singh Luthra told host Maria Bartiromo that a legal team representing him is currently pursuing legal action against Bankman-Fried for his alleged wire fraud after a class-action lawsuit by other investors also claims Bankman-Fried and other high-profile celebrities – such as legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady and NBA star Stephen Curry – made consumers suffer more than $11 billion in damages.
Before FTX’s liquidity crisis was made public, Bankman-Fried had reportedly transferred $10 billion worth of customer credit from FTX to sister firm Alameda Research, according to multiple reports, and had donated an estimated $38 million to Democrat Party campaigns.
Bankman-Fried’s wealth has since been tied to ultra-luxe Bahamas real estate and an exclusive compound called The Albany Resort, where the ultra-wealthy go to enjoy a tropical paradise without interruptions from regular people.
FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried committed "outright fraud," crypto investor Evan Singh Luthra said on "Mornings with Maria" Monday, November 28, 2022. (Getty Images)
"He used users' funds to buy property with hundreds of millions of dollars, was flying private jets with users' money, so we can all see that now," Singh Luthra said.
The House Financial Services Committee announced a formal hearing to investigate FTX and any related crimes two weeks ago.
"This is an outright fraud. SBF stole users' funds, so I'm doing the best I can to get this out there. I want the lawmakers in the U.S. to take action," Singh Luthra said. "We're quite surprised how this is developing, the kind of connections he has. Maybe he donated tens of millions of dollars to the Democrats, also in our money, and he's been able to stay away. And he should already be in jail."
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The crypto investor had deposited $12 million into FTX "a couple of years ago" and lost some of his valuations during the summer’s "crypto crash," but still managed more than $2 million in FTX amid its bankruptcy.
"Today, I can't even log into FTX.com anymore. The website just goes to a bankruptcy page," Singh Luthra pointed out.
While House leaders said their hearings would take place in December and will feature Bankman-Fried as well as other leaders from FTX and Alameda Research, the founder is first slated to appear in The New York Times’ DealBook summit, speaking at a conference alongside global figures like New York City Mayor Eric Adams, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, former Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and others.
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Entrepreneur and crypto investor Evan Luthra discusses the downfall of the cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX and the uncertain future of the crypto industry on ‘Cavuto: Coast to Coast.’
"No conman should be allowed to speak at a conference where you see the founder of Facebook and president of Ukraine speaking alongside. This doesn't make any sense," Luthra said. "There's a lot of media that's putting him in a great light. But that's not the real situation. The real thing is he took users' money and defrauded a lot of people."
"He claims to be an altruist, right? Where is all the donations? All the innovations went to politicians," the crypto investor previously said on Fox News. "I've never seen him donate any money to a charity… That was just media hype. I believe that he really used the media to his advantage and he really got us to believe and trust him."
Sam Bankman-Fried is currently hiding out in his $40 million penthouse at a Bahamas resort and could face potential extradition over the company's collapse.
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