Legal risk. I am assuming that you are not suggesting that any of these figureheads have done anything illegal. In which case the risk here is a reputational one: they don’t want their words dragged into legal proceedings. But that seems like a nebulous possibility, and legal cases like this can take years in any case. Surely you are not saying that they won’t address the subject of FTX or SBF over that entire span lest a lawyer quote them? Or am I misreading you somehow?
I think you’re underestimating how messy being dragged into a court case is—even if you’re totally innocent, there can be significant time, emotional, and energy costs, courts aren’t perfect at distinguishing truth from falsehood, bankruptcy cases are messy and money can be clawed back, etc etc. I think that taking this seriously is extremely reasonable, regardless of whether you’ve done something illegal!
I think you’re underestimating how messy being dragged into a court case is—even if you’re totally innocent, there can be significant time, emotional, and energy costs, courts aren’t perfect at distinguishing truth from falsehood, bankruptcy cases are messy and money can be clawed back, etc etc. I think that taking this seriously is extremely reasonable, regardless of whether you’ve done something illegal!