美国国家公共电台 NPR--FTX debtors' report finds company's collapse due to 'hubris, incompetence and greed'

FTX debtors¹' report finds company's collapse² due to 'hubris³, incompetence⁴ and greed'

Transcript⁵

An FTX debtors' report says "hubris, incompetence, and greed" led to the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange. NPR's Leila Fadel talks to stacy-marie ishmael of Bloomberg News.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

The new leaders of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX say the company's collapse happened because of hubris, incompetence and greed. That's from FTX's first debtors' report since it filed for bankruptcy⁶ in November. Once valued at $32 billion, FTX now owes 8 billion to as many as 1 million creditors⁷. When FTX founder⁸ Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested and extradited to the U.S., new leadership took over to try to steer⁹ the company through bankruptcy. One of those people is John J. Ray III. He took over Enron after that company's famous collapse. Stacy-Marie Ishmael is with us now. They are managing editor of crypto for Bloomberg News. Stacy-Marie, welcome.

STACY-MARIE ISHMAEL: Thank you for having me.

FADEL: So what details stand out to you the most in this debtors' report?

ISHMAEL: There were a couple. I think the overall gist¹⁰ from John J. Ray III is that, from his perspective, this was not a company that had good standards, controls or practices around anything ranging from basic things like password management to really important things like financial accounting¹¹ and recordkeeping.

FADEL: So what does this mean for FTX? Where does it go from here?

ISHMAEL: There are a couple of things to understand. The first is that the primary responsibility of John J. Ray III and his team is to recover as many assets as possible to potentially give back to people to whom FTX owes money, its customers, its vendors¹², its business partners. And that's what this report is in service of. You know, at the very last line of the report is them saying, hey, we found another couple of billion dollars while also being worried about their standards and practices. And so that's what everybody's really paying attention to. How much money are they eventually going to find to return to creditors?

FADEL: And in the report, is there anything especially damning for Sam Bankman-Fried, who was arrested?

ISHMAEL: I mean, as you said, it's this idea that Sam Bankman-Fried and his colleagues allegedly used FTX as a personal piggy bank, giving themselves loans, using money from the company to pay political donations to various U.S. candidates and parties, and overall not having the kinds of recordkeeping and standards and practices that you would expect of a well-run organization.

FADEL: So with cryptocurrency and crypto exchanges, there's been a lot of concern about regulations and what people do with this money and how it's all regulated. Does this affect the credibility of crypto?

ISHMAEL: I think, overall, as an asset class, a lot of the folks who are skeptical¹³ of crypto - and there are a lot of them, including many people in the U.S. government - have pointed¹⁴ to the failures of FTX to say, look; this is what happens when people don't follow the rules. And that's one of the reasons that regulators in the U.S. are cracking down so hard now, to say, hey, OK, we will make sure that you follow the rules. And we will try to protect other customers from losing money in the future.

FADEL: Stacy-Marie Ishmael is managing editor of crypto for Bloomberg News. Thank you so much for your reporting and your time.

ISHMAEL: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF SERGEY CHEREMISINOV'S "SEVEN LIGHTS")

1 debtors   

n.债务人，借方( debtor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Creditors could obtain a writ for the arrest of their debtors. 债权人可以获得逮捕债务人的令状。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Never in a debtors' prison? 从没有因债务坐过牢么？ 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

2 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

3 hubris   

n.傲慢，骄傲

参考例句：

• There is no safety in unlimited technological hubris.在技术方面自以为是会很危险。
• The very hubris of French claims alarmed the other powers.法国贪婪的胃口使其他大国惊恐不安。

4 incompetence   

n.不胜任，不称职

参考例句：

• He was dismissed for incompetence. 他因不称职而被解雇。
• She felt she had been made a scapegoat for her boss's incompetence. 她觉得，本是老板无能，但她却成了替罪羊。

5 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。

6 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

7 creditors   

n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They agreed to repay their creditors over a period of three years. 他们同意3年内向债主还清欠款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Creditors could obtain a writ for the arrest of their debtors. 债权人可以获得逮捕债务人的令状。 来自《简明英汉词典》

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 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

10 gist   

n.要旨；梗概

参考例句：

• Can you give me the gist of this report?你能告诉我这个报告的要点吗？
• He is quick in grasping the gist of a book.他敏于了解书的要点。

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 vendors   

n.摊贩( vendor的名词复数 )；小贩；（房屋等的）卖主；卖方

参考例句：

• The vendors were gazundered at the last minute. 卖主在最后一刻被要求降低房价。
• At the same time, interface standards also benefIt'software vendors. 同时，界面标准也有利于软件开发商。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

13 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。

14 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。