FTX CEO describes "multi-billion dollar company using Quickbooks" to Congress

STORY: "They used QuickBooks - a multi-billion-dollar company using QuickBooks," CEO John Ray told lawmakers on the U.S. House Financial Services Committee.

"QuickBooks?" interrupted Rep. Ann Wagner of Missouri.

"QuickBooks," Ray replied. "Nothing against QuickBooks. It's a very nice tool. Just not for a multi-billion-dollar company," he said.

John Ray was named CEO of FTX in November after the exchange imploded and immediately directed the firm declare bankruptcy. FTX founder Samuel Bankman-Fried was also set to testify at Tuesday's hearing, but was arrested in the Bahamas on a U.S. warrant the evening before. The Justice Department on Tuesday alleged he committed fraud and violated campaign finance laws.

Separately, both the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) alleged Bankman-Fried committed fraud in lawsuits filed on Tuesday.

Since at least May 2019, FTX raised more than $1.8 billion from equity investors in a years-long "brazen, multi-year scheme" in which Bankman-Fried concealed that FTX was diverting customer funds to its affiliated crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research LLC, the SEC alleged.