Crypto mogul Sam Bankman Fried will testify in his cryptocurrency trial once more on Monday. On Friday, he took the stand in his personal defence, admitting he had made “main errors” however denying that he had defrauded any clients of FTX, his failed cryptocurrency trade.
“I made numerous small errors and numerous massive errors,” he stated on Friday. When requested if FTX had a threat administration division, he replied: “We positively ought to have, however no, we did not.”
Testifying is a dangerous transfer, exposing him to what may very well be harsh questioning from federal prosecutors throughout questioning. Protection legal professionals, by way of their line of questioning, portrayed him as a “math geek” who by no means anticipated to be wealthy or well-known, and positively by no means supposed to make off with billions of {dollars}.
Bankman-Fried was anticipated to testify final Thursday. Nevertheless, Decide Lewis Kaplan referred to as for an evidentiary listening to earlier than Bankman-Fried, who’s charged with seven counts of wire fraud and cash laundering conspiracy, testifies to the jury. Kaplan despatched the jury house whereas deliberating permissible matters throughout Bankman-Fried’s testimony. The previous CEO has pleaded not responsible.
Bankman-Fried based the FTX cryptocurrency trade, which collapsed because the cryptocurrency business collapsed in late 2022. Bankman-Fried was arrested in December 2022 within the Bahamas and extradited to the US. If convicted, he faces a long time in jail. On Thursday, he stated on the witness stand that he believed FTX’s phrases of service allowed Alameda Analysis, a hedge fund carefully linked to the cryptocurrency trade, to acquire FTX purchasers’ cash.
Federal attorneys allege that Bankman-Fried funneled cash from FTX to Alameda to additional his personal objectives — $100 million in political contributions, superstar endorsements and a $40 million penthouse within the Bahamas the place he lived with Ellison and different FTX executives.
Carolyn Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend, testified in opposition to him earlier within the trial, saying she dedicated crimes in her capability as Alameda’s CEO, at all times at his path. FTX co-founder Gary Wang testified that Bankman-Fried was conscious of the unlawful motion of funds that led to FTX’s $8 billion deficit when clients tried to withdraw their cryptocurrencies.
