Ex-FTX CEO says he didn't 'knowingly' misuse clients' funds

The former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX said Wednesday that he did not "knowingly" misuse customers' funds, and said he believes his millions of angry customers will eventually be made whole, Qazet.az reports.

The comments from Sam Bankman-Fried came during an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin at a conference put on by The New York Times.

Bankman-Fried has done a handful of media interviews since FTX collapsed in mid-November, but Wednesday's was his first video interview since it filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 11.

“I didn’t ever want to commit fraud on anyone. I was shocked at what happened this month,” Bankman-Fried said. 

FTX failed in the cryptocurrency version of a bank run, when customers tried to withdraw their assets all at once because of growing doubts about the financial strength of the company and its affiliated trading arm, Alameda Research.

Since its collapse, FTX's new management has called the cryptocurrency exchange's management a “complete failure of corporate controls.”

Bankman-Fried said that he took responsibility for FTX's collapse and said he failed to grasp the amount of risk FTX and Alameda were taking on across both businesses.