Former FTX US President Brett Harrison lashed out at Sam Bankman-Fried for manipulating and threatening colleagues who proposed solutions to reorganize FTX US’s management structure.
harrison shared his experiences with Bankman-Fried and FTX US on December 14, explaining how he was hired “by chance via text” in March 2021 after working together at New York-based trading firm Jane Street for a few years.
But six months after Harrison took over FTX US, “cracks began to form” between the two, he said.
Despite recalling that Bankman-Fried was a “sensitive and intellectually curious person” at first, Harrison said he saw “complete insecurity and intransigence” in Bankman-Fried when faced with conflict, particularly when Harrison suggested that FTX US establish branches. separate for your executive, developers, and legal teams.
16/49 I saw in that early conflict his total insecurity and intransigence when his decisions were questioned, his rancor and the volatility of his temperament. I realized that it was not who I remembered.
—Brett Harrison (@BrettHarrison88) January 14, 2023
Harrison added that he was “not sure what explained the dramatic change” in Bankman-Fried’s erratic behaviour, although he suspected that mental health issues might have been a “contributing factor”.
Part of that irrational behavior Harrison describes included a series of gaslighting and manipulation tactics that Bankman-Fried used against Harrison and other colleagues in their attempt to clean up FTX US’s corporate mess.
Harrison also recalled his last attempt to settle the FTX US organization’s problems with Bankman-Fried, stating that he threatened to “destroy my professional reputation” if he didn’t receive a formal apology:
29/49 In response, I was threatened on Sam’s behalf that I would be fired and that Sam would destroy my professional reputation. I was ordered to formally retract what he had written and to deliver an apology to Sam that had been drafted for me.
—Brett Harrison (@BrettHarrison88) January 14, 2023
Harrison said that event “solidified” his decision to leave.
Related: Former FTX Employee: Extravagant Expenses & SBF Cult Worship
As for the fraud charges now filed against Bankman-Fried and other FTX colleagues, Harrison said he was blindsided by the company’s alleged mixing and misuse of billions of dollars in client funds:
“I could never have guessed that behind these types of problems, which I had seen at other more mature firms in my career and believed were not fatal to business success, was multi-billion dollar fraud.”
“If any of us had been suspicious, let alone known the truth, we would have reported it immediately,” he added.
Bankman-Fried was granted bail after posting a $250 million bail guarantee and pleading not guilty to eight criminal charges against him on Jan. 3.
Harrison resigned as president of FTX US on September 27, about five weeks before FTX catastrophically collapsed, where he stated that he moved into an advisory role.
