When a powerful CEO told Sam Bankman-Fried, 'You’re an absolute fraud'

CME Group CEO Terry Duffy met Sam Bankman-Fried in March.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the fallen founder of cryptocurrency platform FTX had met the CEO of CME Group, the world's largest financial derivatives exchange, in March. Terry Duffy, who heads the latter company had called Bankman-Fried an “absolute fraud”.

Terry Duffy recalled his meeting with the FTX founder on the podcast “On The Tape”. When the two met on the sidelines of a conference, Bankman-Fried reportedly said his goal was to compete with the CME Group in cryptocurrency.

“I’ll give you one better, how about I give you my crypto franchises worth $30 million and we’ll go from there?” Duffy said, responding to Bankman-Fried. When he asked Duffy what he wanted in exchange of the deal, Duffy said, “Let me be your risk manager, I’ll clear it to make sure it’s done properly.”

Sam Bankman-Fried turned down Duffy’s offer, he said. To this, the CME Group chief told him, “You know what? You’re a fraud. You’re an absolute fraud. You are supposedly worth $26 billion and you’re an altruist. If you are an altruist at $26 billion, how come there’s not a $10 billion donation going to someone right at this moment in time?”

On the podcast Duffy termed the FTX executives a bunch of clowns. “So I am upset by this (FTX crisis. But I am a measured upset. I’m a very measured upset, because nobody else was calling BS on these clowns but me. My friends at the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) are the only other exchange that said ‘we do not like this as well.’”

Earlier this month, Bankman-Fried lost his billionaire status overnight as his personal wealth plummeted nearly 94 per cent to $991.5 million in a single day. The fall in his fortune came after the 30-year-old announced that his crypto exchange was being bought by rival Binance. Binance later pulled out of the deal.

FTX, which filed for bankruptcy, said it had taken action to halt what it said were "unauthorized transactions." This comes a day after Bankman-Fried resigned.

The Bahamas, a tax haven where the troubled cryptocurrency platform FTX has its headquarters, is probing the company following the developments in the past week.