FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has denied the hypothesis that he fled to Argentina, as the saga surrounding his collapsed cryptocurrency exchange continued to spread near real-time on Twitter.
In a text message to Reuters on Nov. 12, Bankman-Fried, who is also going through the so-called SBF, said he was still in the Bahamas. Asked in particular via Reuters if he had flown to Argentina, as rumors suggest, he replied: “No. “
Users took to Twitter over the weekend to speculate whether SBF was on the run after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for FTX Group, which includes a host of corporations including FTX Trading, FTX US and Alameda Research. The rumors began after users tracked the coordinates of their personal jet on ADS-B Exchange’s flight-tracking website. The tracker reported that SBF’s Gulfstream G450 landed in Buenos Aires on a direct flight from Nassau, Bahamas, in the early morning hours of Nov. 12.
SBF is rumored to be on its way to Argentina. pic. twitter. com/Jnxm3bprm9
Bankman-Fried lives in an upscale penthouse in Nassau reportedly shared by several roommates, Caroline Ellison, executive director of Alameda Research.
Sam Bankman-Fried has landed @SBF_FTX Private Jet lands in Buenos Aires Argentina LVKEB on the run #FTX pic. twitter. com/DD4Gy9nguk
SBF, once the poster child of exponential growth of cryptocurrencies, now finds itself in the midst of the industry’s biggest scandal. $8 billion empty on its balance sheet. According to Bloomberg, SBF’s net worth went from $16 billion to 0 after the FTX collapse.
Related: Binance CEO CZ on FTX crash: ‘We’ve been behind for a few years’
FTX has raised billions in venture capital over the years, touting backers such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Circle Internet Financial, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Paul Tudor Jones and Sequoia Capital.