What Elon Musk said about Sam Bankman-Fried, who once expressed interest in Twitter deal, then backed off

Sam Bankman-Fried, the embattled crypto billionaire whose FTX exchange has filed for bankruptcy, once expressed interest in Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter.

On November 11, the Twitter account Internal Tech Emails shared excerpts from a conversation between Musk and banker Michael Grimes, involving Bankman-Fried. The account said the exchange took place in April, 2022. These messages were also part of documents presented in court in the Elon Musk-Twitter battle, Axios reported.

Sam Bankman-Fried reaches out to Elon Musk

April 25, 2022 pic.twitter.com/f2VxnGmLLP — Internal Tech Emails (@TechEmails) November 11, 2022

In the messages, Michael Grimes told Musk that Bankman-Fried had verbally suggested he could invest as much as $10 billion, but "in writing he said up to 5 (billion)".

In another message Grimes wrote: "I do think he (Bankman-Fried) would be at least 3bn (billion)."

Musk asked if Bankman-Fried even had $3 billion in liquid assets.

Also read:

FTX to file for US bankruptcy protection, CEO Sam Bankman-Fried resigns

The collapse of FTX — Is this crypto’s Lehman moment?

Inside Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire, roommates who dated, ran FTX from the Bahamas: report

To which, the banker said: "I think Sam has is. Yes."

Today, Musk responded to the Internal Tech Emails tweet, saying it was "accurate".

" He (Bankman-Fried) set off my bs detector, which is why I did not think he had $3B," Musk wrote.

Bankman-Fried did not end up investing in Twitter. Axios reported that after a phone call with Musk, he said he was no longer interested.

But as recently as last week, Bankman-Fried praised Musk taking over Twitter's reins

"I think there’s a ton of upside in what he’s doing,” he told Forbes magazine, adding that however, he did not feel he had something to add to Musk's takeover.