Former FTX US President States That Relationship With SBF Has Completely Deteriorated
Brett Harrison remembers his experience working with Sam Bankman-Fried, who he describes as emotionally unstable, during his tenure as President of FTX US, stating that their relationship had completely broken down due to ongoing disagreements about how the company was being run.
Valentin
March 12, 2023
In a lengthy Twitter thread, Brett Harrison, the former President of FTX US, recounted his experiences at the company and detailed the reasons for his departure. He stated that working with Sam Bankman-Fried was difficult due to his emotionally unstable behavior, avoidance of conflicts, resistance to criticism, and exclusion from key decision-making discussions.
In his tweets, Harrison described how his relationship with Sam Bankman-Fried and his colleagues at FTX had completely fallen apart after months of disagreements over how the company was being run.
He also remembered his initial impression of Bankman-Fried when they worked together at Jane Street, a trading firm in New York City. At the time, Harrison thought of him as a talented trader and an intelligent and thoughtful person.
However, during his time as President of FTX US, Harrison helped build the company’s US team and establish key partnerships, such as with LedgerX, but his relationship with Bankman-Fried deteriorated.
Harrison also noted that Bankman-Fried appeared disinterested in the US side of the business and would make decisions that affected the US without warning from his location in the Bahamas.
He added that during an early conflict, he saw Bankman-Fried’s insecurity, stubbornness when his decisions were questioned, vindictiveness, and emotional instability. Harrison realized that Bankman-Fried was not the person he remembered from working together at Jane Street.
“I never could have guessed that underlying these kinds of issues — which I’d seen at other more mature firms in my career and believed not to be fatal to business success — was multi-billion-dollar fraud,” Harrison added.
After five months of continued hostility in the workplace, Harrison decided to make one final attempt to improve the situation by submitting a formal complaint outlining the company’s main obstacles to success, and stated that he would resign if they were not addressed.
On September 27, 2022, Harrison resigned as President of FTX US. He shared more information about his experience at the company in a Twitter thread on January 14, which followed a previous announcement on January 9 that he would reveal more details “in time”.