Crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried admits he has "close to nothing" after losing 94% of his $16 billion fortune in just one day.
The 30-year-old - who often goes by SBF - made the comment following the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange he founded, FTX, in a matter of days following allegations of fraud, CNN reported. Earlier this month, the company declared insolvency.
It wasn't long ago that the young entrepreneur was investing in a range of companies across the US and the Bahamas, had donated millions of dollars to the Democrats, and even pledged to eventually give away most of his fortune.
However, in the midst of FTX's liquidity crunch, Changpeng Zhao's Binance reportedly swept in to bail out the company, with the Bloomberg wealth index anticipating this could completely wipe out FTX's investors.
Earlier this week, SBF appeared in a video interview with columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times DealBook Summit, revealing that he had just one credit card linked to a bank account with $100,000 and adding he now had "close to nothing" left, Bloomberg reported.
He had maintained that all of his assets were in FTX, though the Bloomberg report has stated that it is impossible to verify the validity of SBF's claims. It was reported that he also had $500 million in venture capital firms, but that if those assets were held through FTX then they could have been wiped out.
A separate report from Reuters has since revealed that SBF, his parents, and several senior executives at FTX purchased around 19 properties worth $121 million in the Bahamas during the past two years.
That same report revealed the immense property buying spree that SBF engaged in. He had previously told the outlet that he lived in a property with nine other FTX colleagues in the Bahamas - where the company was based. SBF even said that the firm provided free meals for employees and an "in-house Uber-like" service around the island.
Following FTX's collapse, numerous reports emerged that appeared to show that SBF secretly used $10 billion in customer funds to prop up his trading business and that $1 billion of those funds have disappeared.
John Ray - the new CEO of FTX - revealed in court documents from a recent filing in the District of Delaware bankruptcy court that he discovered that corporate funds from FTX were used to "purchase homes and other personal items for employees and advisors," per Reuters.
Twitter users are not happy with SBF's conduct, commenting on his current controversy and allegations of money theft. "I can't believe mainstream media is still running stories about Sam Bankman-Fried without a single mention of his criminality. This is a con man who perpetrated a historic fraud. He stole billions of dollars from unsuspecting victims. How is that not the lead of every story??", one commenter wrote.
Another user added: "Cancel Culture has wiped out a lot of people yet the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times still trying to rehab and protect the image of Sam Bankman-Fried. So many young people looking to make their way in life have been wiped out. The 'elites' protect their own even under a microscope."