美国国家公共电台 NPR--Lawmakers on Capitol Hill hold hearings into the failed cryptocurrency giant FTX

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill hold hearings into the failed cryptocurrency giant FTX

Transcript¹

NPR's A Martinez talks to actor and author Ben McKenzie, who's skeptical³ of cryptocurrencies and critical of celebrities⁴ for promoting them. He'll be a witness at a Senate banking⁵ committee hearing.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

Congressional hearings into the failed cryptocurrency giant FTX continue this morning. Yesterday, prosecutors⁶ indicted⁷ FTX's founder⁸ on eight counts of fraud and conspiracy⁹. Sam Bankman-Fried was supposed to testify before a House committee yesterday, but he's in jail in the Bahamas. So the committee's sole witness was John J. Ray III, who has helped restructure many companies, including Enron. And he called FTX one of the biggest business failures he had ever seen.

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JOHN J RAY III: This is really old-fashioned embezzlement¹⁰. This is just taking money from customers and using it for your own purpose - not sophisticated at all.

MART?NEZ: Ray also testified FTX used QuickBooks for accounting¹¹ a multibillion-dollar company. We're going to talk now to actor and author Ben McKenzie. He's a cryptocurrency skeptic², and he's testifying before that House committee today.

So, Ben, what's the biggest thing you want to get across in your testimony¹² today?

BEN MCKENZIE: Sure. It is for the Senate. I am trying to convey that cryptocurrencies are not currencies. I have an economics degree. And cryptocurrencies cannot be an effective medium of exchange, unit of account or store of value. So what are they? Well, people put money into them hoping to make money off of them. Under American law, that's an investment contract; more precisely¹³, a security - an investment of money in a common enterprise with the expectation of profit to be derived¹⁴ from the efforts of others. That's what's called the Howey Test. Those are the four prongs of the Howey Test. And that's how we determine securities in this country. And so these, quote-unquote, cryptocurrencies need to be classified properly and treated as securities, with all the applicable laws in place.

MART?NEZ: What raised your suspicions about cryptocurrency? What got you, like, kind of interested in this?

MCKENZIE: Well, a friend of mine came to me in 2021. This friend had given me the worst financial advice of my life a decade prior and basically encouraged me to invest in something that I think ended up being a penny stock pump and dump. And in 2021, he came back, and he said I should buy Bitcoin. And I love my friend. He's a dear friend. But that raised my suspicions. As soon as I started looking at cryptocurrency, I couldn't understand it. I am an actor by trade, and words are the tools of my trade. And cryptocurrencies not being currencies was very confusing to me. The further I went down, none of the words made sense. Decentralized actually meant centralized. Stablecoins weren't stable. I could go on and on, but it was a very strange experience.

MART?NEZ: Yeah.

MCKENZIE: And honestly, I just became obsessed¹⁵ with it.

MART?NEZ: And you got an economics...

MCKENZIE: That's why I'm writing...

MART?NEZ: ...Degree from Virginia, right? So it's like, if that didn't make sense to you, it's not going to make sense to a lot of people.

MCKENZIE: That's right. And I think the majority of the population, you know, the 80-plus percent of Americans who have not purchased crypto - I think that they almost always say the same thing when I ask them what they think about it. They say, I don't know. It seems complicated but also a little scammy. And I say, no, no, no. You got it. It's actually not that complicated, but it is scammy.

MART?NEZ: A little scammy - should the government have done something sooner?

MCKENZIE: Yes. This was a - pretty much a massive regulatory failure, in my opinion. And I don't want to - you know, I'm not trying to throw elbows here, but we really need to look at how crypto exploited the gaps in our regulatory structure. We're the only country in the world that I'm aware of that separates its commodities regulation from its securities regulation, has basically created rival agencies competing over jurisdiction¹⁶. I think that's one of the issues. I think the fact that these companies are mainly headquartered overseas - you know, FTX is run out of the Bahamas - and yet had access to American customers - I think that's problematic. I think there's a number of issues that we need to address.

MART?NEZ: Ben, you've been critical of the celebrities and influencers who promoted FTX and then made a profit off of those endorsements¹⁷. Do you think they should be held accountable somehow?

MCKENZIE: I think they should look within their hearts and ask whether they ought to give that money back to the people from whom it was stolen.

MART?NEZ: Can Larry David, though, claim that he - you know, at the end of that commercial, he said, I don't think it's going to work. Can he claim, like, hey, I - I knew it all the time.

MCKENZIE: He can claim whatever he wants. I would ask them just to look inside their hearts and think if they've done the right thing or not.

MART?NEZ: That's Ben McKenzie. His book, "Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism¹⁸, And The Golden Age Of Fraud" is out next summer.

Ben, thanks.

MCKENZIE: Thank you so much.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 skeptic   

n.怀疑者，怀疑论者，无神论者

参考例句：

• She is a skeptic about the dangers of global warming.她是全球变暖危险的怀疑论者。
• How am I going to convince this skeptic that she should attention to my research?我将如何使怀疑论者确信她应该关注我的研究呢？

3 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

4 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

5 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

6 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

7 indicted   

控告，起诉( indict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The senator was indicted for murder. 那位参议员被控犯谋杀罪。
• He was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of murder. 他被大陪审团以两项谋杀罪名起诉。

8 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

9 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

10 embezzlement   

n.盗用，贪污

参考例句：

• He was accused of graft and embezzlement and was chained and thrown into prison.他因被指控贪污盗窃而锒铛入狱。
• The judge sent him to prison for embezzlement of funds.法官因他盗用公款将其送入监牢。

11 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

12 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

13 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

14 derived   

vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取

参考例句：

• Many English words are derived from Latin and Greek. 英语很多词源出于拉丁文和希腊文。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He derived his enthusiasm for literature from his father. 他对文学的爱好是受他父亲的影响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

16 jurisdiction   

n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权

参考例句：

• It doesn't lie within my jurisdiction to set you free.我无权将你释放。
• Changzhou is under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province.常州隶属江苏省。

17 endorsements   

n.背书( endorsement的名词复数 )；（驾驶执照上的）违章记录；（公开的）赞同；（通常为名人在广告中对某一产品的）宣传

参考例句：

• He must make much money on those tennis shoe endorsements he does. 他替那些网球鞋珍重广告，就赚了不少钱。 来自互联网
• But celebrity endorsements remain an important promotional tool for marketers. 尽管如此，邀明星助阵仍是营销人员重要的推广手段之一。 来自互联网

18 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。