Leaked Messages Show FTX Insiders Begging SBF to Step Down as Crisis Deepened

In the early days of the FTX collapse, people were trying to get Sam Bankman- Fried to step down as CEO because he was stuck in the mud trying to save the exchange.

According to the New York Times, a trove of leaked internal messages among FTX's inner sanctum reveal that those around SBF were so flustered by his reaction to the collapse that they even reached out to his dad to try and make him feel better.

According to the messages and sources reviewed by the NYT, Bankman-Fried was convinced that he could save the firm and bring it back from the brink even after Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, the owner of a rival exchange, took control.

The idea of securing additional outside investment was revealed in the leaked messages. He told his former colleagues that potential interest in billions of dollars of funding came in about eight minutes after he signed the Chapter 11 documents.

He had to be handheld by lawyers as he stepped down, which he resisted furiously. According to the messages reviewed by the NYT, lawyers had to check in on him multiple times while he was looking into John Jay Ray III, a corporate turnaround guru who led Enron through its own implosion in 2001 and is now helming the bankrupt FTX.

On the night of November 10, an FTX executive wrote to SBF, "This is an excellent pick and I want you to sign it tonight." The company can resolve issues that need urgent progress if John is in place quickly.

Bankman-Fried, who had previously seemed to dodge Dexter's questions about stepping down, appeared to only decide to hire Ray after talking to lawyers, and finally made the decision to do so around four the next morning.

Despite being no longer in control of the firm, SBF continued to lobby investors even after FTX filed for Chapter 11.

The initial bankruptcy filing wrongly claimed to own firms like Alameda and FTX's American arm, when in fact they were actually owned by AZA Finance.

Ryne Miller told AZA's people that the fault wasn't theirs.

Miller told AZA execs that the founders didn't help them prepare this week. It wasn't good.

SBF says his lawyers can go f*ck themselves.