Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency empire was a “house of cards” that collapsed when he stole $10 billion in client funds to finance lavish vacations, donate to politicians and pay off lenders, the feds charged as the trial began. trial of fallen former billionaire in New York. Wednesday in York City.
“This man stole billions of dollars from thousands of people,” U.S. Attorney Thane Rehn said as he pointed out the 31-year-old accused fraudster during his opening statements inside a packed courtroom in lower Manhattan.
Rehn accused Bankman-Fried, who was sitting at the defense table in a gray suit, purple tie and a carefully coiffed new hairstyle, of using his FTX crypto exchange, which has since collapsed, as his personal piggy bank, installing methods ” secrets” to transfer client funds. from FTX to his Alameda Research hedge fund to use as he wanted.
“When customers thought their money was going into the stock market, they were actually sending their money directly into the defendant’s pocket,” Rehn said as Bankman-Fried sat staring ahead, occasionally typing on a laptop without Internet.
Prosecutors’ claims came at the start of a blockbuster trial that could cap Bankman-Fried’s stunning fall from grace.
Bankman-Fried faces up to 110 years in prison if convicted of the various fraud and conspiracy charges he faces.REUTERS
The disgraced mogul went from running a crypto platform worth nearly $40 billion (with ads featuring celebrities like Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen) to facing fraud and conspiracy charges that could send him to prison for the rest of his life.
“A year ago, it seemed like Sam Bankman-Fried was on top of the world,” Rehn told the jury in his opening remarks.
“He traveled around the world on a private plane, dated celebrities, had his face on magazine covers,” Rehn added, as the fallen crypto mogul’s parents, Stanford Law School professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, watched from the gallery. .
“He had wealth, he had power, he had influence, but it was all built on lies,” Rehn added. “The money he spent to build his empire was money he stole from his clients.”
The parents of the accused fraudster, Stanford Law School professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, attended the trialREUTERS
Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried’s defense attorney, Mark Cohen, attempted to portray his client as a harmless “math nerd” who was acting in “good faith” and “had no intention of stealing from anyone.”
“It’s not a crime to be the CEO of a company that then goes bankrupt,” Cohen told the jury, while trying to portray Bankman-Fried as a well-intentioned startup founder who was simply lost.
“Sam and his colleagues were building the plane while they were flying,” Cohen said.
“No one person, no CEO could be everywhere and do everything,” the lawyer added. “Things were happening quickly. “Sam and others were making hundreds of decisions a day, and as a result, some things were overlooked.”
The trial is expected to last six weeks.AP
The first federal witness called to the stand on Wednesday was French cocoa trader Marc-Antoine Julliard, who testified that he invested crypto funds worth around $140,000 in FTX after seeing advertisements and media appearances depicting Bankman-Fried as the “future face of the crypto industry.” .”
Prosecutors asked him if he was ever able to withdraw his funds after FTX imploded in November 2022.
“Never,” Julliard responded.
Next was Adam Yedidia, who testified that he quickly became friends with Bankman-Fried while they studied together at MIT before joining him as a developer at his crypto exchange.
Yedidia, who was granted immunity from prosecutors as a condition of his testimony, said he resigned from FTX last year after a colleague told him the company had used client funds to pay its lenders.
“I was concerned… that I had inadvertently written code that contributed to a crime,” Yedidia said.
Prosecutors on Wednesday also introduced into evidence infamous ads featuring football star Tom Brady and comedian Larry David, including a 2022 Super Bowl ad in which David expresses seemingly prophetic skepticism about Bankman-Fried’s company. .
“As I said, it’s FTX. “It’s an easy and safe way to get into cryptocurrencies,” an actor playing an FTX executive tells David in the ad.
“Ehhhh, I don’t think so,” David responds with a smile. “And I’m never wrong about these things, never!”
The commercial ends with a message that says: “Don’t be like Larry. Don’t miss the next big thing,” imploring viewers to sign up for FTX.
Prosecutors expect to call several former members of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle to the stand during the six-week trial, with FTX co-founder Gary Wang expected to testify later in the week.
— Additional reporting by Thomas Barrabi.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn