Bankman-Fried's first post-arrest tweet says he didn't move Alameda funds after posting bail

Quick Take

Sam Bankman-Fried tweeted for the first time since his arrest on Dec. 12.
He claimed that he was not responsible for funds recently moved from Alameda Research wallets.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, tweeted for the first time since his arrest earlier this month. He said he was not responsible for funds that appear to have been moved from addresses associated with Alameda Research after he posted bail.

"None of these are me," he wrote. "I'm not and couldn't be moving any of those funds; I don't have access to them anymore."

Ethereum wallet addresses associated with collapsed trading firm Alameda Research traded several crypto tokens for ether and USDT on Wednesday before swapping for bitcoin, The Block reported, citing on-chain data. Etherscan transaction data show the Alameda-linked wallets sold Lido, Polygon, Uniswap and other tokens for ether and USDT before bridging to the Bitcoin network.

Bankman-Fried was released on bail of $250 million on Dec. 24. He was arrested in the Bahamas on Dec. 12 for charges including money laundering, wire fraud and securities fraud before his extradition to the U.S. on Dec. 21.

Bankman-Fried is likely to plead not guilty to eight counts of fraud at a hearing next week, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar.

Disclaimer: Beginning in 2021, Michael McCaffrey, the former CEO and majority owner of The Block, took a series of loans from founder and former FTX and Alameda CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. McCaffrey resigned from the company in December 2022 after failing to disclose those transactions.

(Updates with Wall Street Journal report in 5th paragraph.)