Sam Bankman-Fried accuses Binance of leaking information about FTX to the media.

The former head of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, believes rival cryptocurrency exchange Binance leaked FTX's balance sheet to the media to hurt its rival. That's according to documents presented in court during the Bankman-Fried trial.

Caroline Allison, a former executive at FTX partner Alameda Research, said that Bankman-Fried drafted a memorandum on Nov. 6, 2022, about contacting potential investors and others who could help rescue the struggling exchange.

In the memorandum, Bankman-Fried indicated that Binance was "waging a propaganda campaign against us." He wrote that the company "leaked the balance sheet, published a blog about it, passed the information to CoinDesk, and then stated publicly that they would sell $500 million of FTT tokens in response, urging customers to be wary of FTX." FTT is the symbol for FTX's own cryptocurrency token.

In November 2022, CoinDesk reported that it received Alameda's balance sheet and that the company may be in dire straits.

This led to a massive withdrawal of funds from FTX as many of the exchange's customers rushed to withdraw their money, causing the company to go bankrupt.

Although Bankman-Fried noted in the memo that FTX had capital but not liquidity, Ellison said that of the $12 billion in customer assets that were reportedly on the exchange, only $4 billion was available for withdrawal.

Ellison also claimed that Alameda bribed a Chinese government official and used the identities of Thai prostitutes to unlock $1 billion in frozen funds on other cryptocurrency exchanges.

Bankman-Fried is charged with seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering over the use of FTX customer funds to cover losses at his hedge fund Alameda Research. He also allegedly used the funds to purchase real estate and cover other personal expenses. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to all charges and could be sentenced to up to 110 years in prison.

Shawn Moran

Shawn Moran is a politics reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter at @SeanMoran3.