Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried revealed he feels "really, really bad" for those affected by the collapse of his crypto exchange in an interview with "Good Morning America" Thursday, hours after he defended his handling of customers' funds at a New York Times event.
Despite claiming he "didn't try to commit fraud" at Wednesday's New York Times DealBook Summit, one critic argues his handling of the company will land him jail time.
"It just kind of reconfirmed in my mind that this dude is going to jail," FOX Business senior correspondent Charlie Gasparino said. "If he's not in jail in a year from now, I'd be very surprised."
On "America's Newsroom" Thursday, Gasparino unpacked Bankman-Fried's public comments where the disgraced FTX founder claimed he should've been more responsible for the company's operations.
"I really deeply wish that I had taken, like, a lot more responsibility for understanding what the details were of what was going on," Bankman-Fried said on "Good Morning America." "I should have been on top of this."
He also said at Wednesday's summit that the company failed due to "a massive failure of oversight on my part."
Gasparino responded by criticizing Bankman-Fried's defense.
"You just can't start a financial firm like this and say, ‘Oh, you know, I forgot about my compliance department. Oops.’ I mean, you just can't do that," Gasparino told hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino.
"You can't forget that. The minute you forget that, you're guilty of fraud. And I'm telling you, this dude is going to jail."
Other critics have called out the media for giving Bankman-Fried a platform like the NYT DealBook Summit, which was described as a symposium with top business leaders. Some have even likened him to Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.
"So to me, it seems like this was a fraud from the beginning," FTX investor Evan Luthra said on "Fox & Friends First" last week. "He should already be in jail. He should already be behind bars, and he should be made to surrender all these assets that he is hidden and distributed to his friends and close associates."
FTX CEO SAM BANKMAN-FRIED DENIES HE WAS TRYING TO BUY INFLUENCE WITH DONATIONS TO NEWS OUTLETS
OutKick founder Clay Travis argued on "The Faulkner Focus" Thursday that Bankman-Fried "should be in prison."
"I don't think there's any doubt that a massive fraud was perpetrated," Travis added. "This guy is the Bernie Madoff of crypto."
While FTX and Bankman-Fried face criminal investigations, investors and other entities connected to the exchange are left uncertain of the fate of their funds.
"I believe the responsibility is on them right now… on the Democrats to get this money back to us as the users," Luthra told host Todd Pirro last week. "This was never Sam Bankman-Fried's money… This was not a donation that was made in the right way."
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"If you're an average person out there and you give your money to a broker, remember this: Wall Street is a confidence game. It's literally a confidence game," Gasparino explained. "You have to remember, whenever you give your money to someone, you're giving him your confidence. And is he worth it? This dude, in my view, was never worth it."
Fox News' Hanna Panreck, Bailee HIll, Charles Creitz, Joseph A. Wulfsohn and Brian Flood contributed to this report.
