I hope you are all well and had an excellent week, welcome to CryptoGod-1’s blog on all things crypto. In this post I will be looking at the conclusion of Sam Bankman Fried's testimony, as his three days in Manhattan federal court finished on Tuesday the 31st of October 2023.
SBF Testimony as Defence Rest Case
On Tuesday the 31st of October 2023 former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried concluded his three days of testifying in Manhattan Federal Court. He faced intense questioning from US Assistant Attorney Danielle Sassoon regarding the role he played in the demise of his cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The exchange owes billions of dollars to customers who were left in dismay when the exchange filed for bankruptcy in November 2022.
The cross-examination by Sassoon began with the scrutinizing of SBF's "cozy" relationship with members of the Bahamian Government, including Prime Minister Philip Davis. SBF was pressed on his alleged offer to pay off $11 billion of debt for the Bahamas, which the defendant stated he was unable to recall. SBF remained as coy as possible while the prosecution revealed that Davis and his wife were given court-side seats at FTX Arena in Miami.
A message was shown by the prosecution to the jury, revealing that within a group chat Bankman-Fried was a part of he referred to former CEO of FTX Digital Markets, Ryan Salame, as “essentially” a member of the Bahamian Government. Following that, a clip of former US president, Bill Clinton, and Bankman-Fried with Davis and former UK prime minister, Tony Blair, at a private dinner in April of 2022 was played for the court. Other prominent names in attendance at the gathering were singer Katy Perry and actor Russell Bloom, whom Bankman-Fried had previously attended the Super Bowl with alongside Michael Kives, the founder of Bankman-Fried bankrolled venture capital firm K5 Global.
Sassoon went on and presented an email from Bankman-Fried where the disgraced founder claimed he “would be more than happy to open up withdrawals for Bahamian customers” following the collapse of FTX, which saw withdrawals suspended for customers elsewhere such as the United States. In response, SBF noted that he “briefly” allowed for the exchange to give Bahamian customers priority access to withdraw these funds.
As the session continued, SBF relied on his bad memory as a key aspect of his defence strategy against the government's questioning. The disgraced “king of crypto” failed to provide details regarding potentially incriminating information while he was on the stand, and often stated “I don’t recall” when asked questions regarding his time running FTX. Making use of vague and equivocal answers was the tactic of choice for SBF.
He did at one point acknowledge that numerous of his multi-million and billion-dollar venture investments were not, in fact, margin trades, while noting that repaying third-party lenders with money from FTX’s exchange could be considered as such yesterday.
Judge Kaplan had previously described SBF as having an “interesting way” when responding to questioning, and he was clearly left frustrated at how unresponsive the defendant was being. At one point, Judge Kaplan demanded, “Mr. Bankman-Fried, just answer the question.”
A final moment of note for the defence was when Sassoon brought up evidence suggesting SBF was aware that TX’s former director of engineering, Nishad Singh, was guilty in the fraud scheme even though he himself had denied any wrongdoing. Using notes gained from SBF's Google account, Sassoon revealed a document wherein the FTX founder wrote: “Nishad: no plea deal, nothing… they’ll do it whenever they get past whatever the blocker is.”
A brief encounter followed between Sassoon and Bankman-Fried:
“You wrote that,” Sassoon asked.
“I think so,” Bankman-Fried replied.
The closing arguments will be presented on Wednesday, the 1st of November 2023, in the morning. The jury will then be set to begin deliberations shortly after. The entire trial is nearing the end, and with the possibility of life in prison hanging over SBF, he will be sweating heavily as the jury makes their decision.
Have a great day,
CryptoGod-1.
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