CLAIM: The CEO of the bankrupt cryptocurrency firm FTX is the daughter of the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The embattled former CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, isn’t the child of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, nor is the new CEO, John Ray III.
THE FACTS: As a new CEO tries to clean up the mess after one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges abruptly filed for bankruptcy last week, false conspiracy theories have emerged around key players involved.
“The CEO of FTX is the daughter of the Chairman of the SEC!” read several social media posts with hundreds of shares.
The claims are unfounded. Bankman-Fried, the former head of FTX, is the son of Joseph Bankman, not the SEC chair. Ray, the new CEO, was born just two years after Gensler, making the alleged family relationship impossible.
Gensler, who was appointed as SEC chair in 2021, has three daughters: Anna, Lee and Isabel. Internet searches showed no immediate relationships between them and FTX.
It’s possible some social media accounts posting the false claims were referring to Caroline Ellison, the CEO of Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency trading firm that partnered with FTX and also filed for bankruptcy last week. Her father is Glenn Ellison, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has never chaired or served on the SEC.
Ellison’s father worked with Gensler when they both taught at MIT.
A spokesperson for the SEC didn’t respond to a request for...
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