Former cryptocurrency golden boy Sam Bankman-Fried will face intense cross-examination by federal prosecutors in Manhattan on Monday, and then a mysterious planned “rebuttal” witness.
The 31-year-old MIT graduate coolly tried to deflect blame in court on Friday for his alleged theft of $10 billion from FTX investors, claiming he knew “basically nothing” about cryptocurrencies when he started his business and that imploded due to “mistakes.” ”Not crimes.
But he won’t be able to avoid being criticized by prosecutors during questioning when his criminal trial resumes Monday morning.
Prosecutors also hinted Friday that they plan to call a “rebuttal” witness after he leaves the stand.
“We’re hoping for a short rebuttal case,” a member of the federal prosecutor’s team told Judge Lewis Kaplan after jurors were sent home for the day.
The feds did not identify the witness or explain how they would “rebut” aspects of the accused cryptocriminal’s account.
The accused cryptocurrency thief, accused of squandering FTX user funds on such lavish goods as millions of dollars in real estate in the Bahamas, testified Friday: “We thought we could build the best product on the market,” when asked by his lawyer because. he founded his company.
The accused scammer showed little to no emotion during his more than five hours of testimony on Friday.REUTERS
The lawyer, Mark Cohen, responded: “Did it turn out that way?”
Bankman-Fried, dressed in a gray suit and purple tie on the witness stand inside a packed federal courtroom in lower Manhattan, responded in a flat, nasally monotone: “No, it turned out basically the opposite of that.
“A lot of people were hurt,” added the defendant, whose parents are professors at Stanford Law School.
Bankman-Fried showed almost no emotion, and little to no remorse, as he provided various explanations for his companies’ meltdown in November 2022.
The fallen cryptocurrency mogul claimed that FTX, a company he owned and ran, had “major oversights” in its “risk management.”
He also accused his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who served as CEO of his Alameda Research hedge fund, of failing to “hedge” the company’s bets months before the feds said Bankman-Fried stole funds from FTX to pay Alameda’s multimillion-dollar debt.
Ellison accepted a deal and ratted out Bankman-Fried.
She told jurors earlier this month that Bankman-Fried had the final say on all major Alameda decisions and kept her story straight under questioning from the disgraced crypto mogul’s lawyers.
While facing friendly questioning from his own lawyer, the former billionaire testified Friday that he “made a series of small mistakes and several big mistakes” while running FTX.
But he denied “taking” client funds, contradicting the testimony of three former executives, including Ellison, who told jurors that Bankman-Fried used FTX client assets to prop up an underwater Alameda.
“Did you scam someone?” Bankman-Fried’s attorney asked him shortly after taking the stand, shortly before 10 a.m.
“No, I didn’t,” the defendant responded.
Bankman-Fried’s bail was revoked after a judge found she had leaked star witness Caroline Ellison’s diary to a journalist.
Prosecutors are set to confront the disgraced cryptocurrency king during a cross-examination on Monday that could be brutal for Bankman-Fried, if Thursday’s rehearsal was any indication.
The California native tried to dodge questions during a surprise evidentiary hearing, held after jurors were sent home, and repeatedly stammered, “I don’t remember” as prosecutor Danielle Sassoon questioned him.
Later Friday, the MIT grad attempted to distance himself from the computer code that the feds say allowed his hedge fund to steal funds from unwitting FTX users by “borrowing” money he never paid back.
“He wasn’t much of a programmer,” Bankman-Fried said.
His ex-girlfriend Ellison has testified that Bankman-Fried actually ordered the company’s head of engineering, Nishad Singh, to write the code that would allow Alameda to access the funds.
The California native also testified that he knew “basically nothing” about cryptocurrencies before founding his cryptocurrency-focused Alameda hedge fund in 2017.
Bankman-Fried’s parents, Stanford Law School professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, attended the trial. AFP via Getty Images
“I had absolutely no idea how they worked,” he said of cryptocurrency transactions.
He also gave his side of why he split from Ellison in the spring of 2022, saying, “I didn’t have the time or the energy.”
He also addressed his typical dress code of khaki shorts and a T-shirt.
“I found them comfortable,” he said of the clothes.
Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of conspiracy and wire fraud and faces what would effectively be a life sentence if convicted.
He is being held at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center after a federal judge revoked his bail after finding that he intimidated witnesses by leaking Ellison’s personal diary to a journalist.
Categories: Trending
Source: vtt.edu.vn