More from The trial and sentencing of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried
The FTX fraud trial continues, now with testimony from Singh, who’d owned 7.8 percent of the company and pleaded guilty to fraud charges in February.
He’s admitted on the stand to committing fraud and campaign finance violations in a conspiracy with SBF, Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, FTX CTO Gary Wang, and others.
There’s a Sunday evening filing from the defense team (PDF) in SBF’s fraud trial.
Turns out Bankman-Fried still doesn’t have access to his prescribed medication, which seems lousy. But that’s not the part that interests me. This is (emphasis mine, obviously):
However, as we approach the defense case and the critical decision of whether Mr. Bankrnan-Fried will testify, the defense has a growing concern that because of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s lack of access to Adderall he has not been able to concentrate at the level he ordinarily would and that he will not be able to meaningfully participate in the presentation of the defense case.
Questions from Sam Bankman-Fried’s own lawyers allowed jurors to hear snippets recorded from a November 2022 all-hands Days before SBF resigned and the company filed for bankruptcy, Caroline Ellison admitted to employees that Alameda took customer money from SBF’s other big business, the FTX crypto exchange.
Ellison, SBF, and several others were aware of the scheme, she told the employees. Instead of the snippets jurors heard, Insider has posted the entire thing on SoundCloud, and this link will take you directly to the relevant segment.
You can click here to follow all of our updates from Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud trial.
[SoundCloud]
The defense botched the cross examination of Caroline Ellison.
And his “very valuable” hair, too.
That’s one of the things mentioned during the ongoing testimony of former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison against her terrible ex-boyfriend, as well as the idea SBF sought to have regulators “crack down on Binance,” the competing crypto exchange that sparked the run that took FTX down.
You can expect more updates from Wednesday’s events in the Sam Bankman-Fried / FTX fraud trial to come later today.
Bankman-Fried thought Alameda’s brand wasn’t as good as FTX’s — so he put his sometime-lover in charge of it.
Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly is sporting a jailhouse haircut during his fraud trial over FTX’s failure, and observers, including this NPR reporter and CNBC, note that his ex, Caroline Ellison, needed a little time to find him in the courtroom.
According to CNBC and the New York Times, once her testimony began, she wasted little time:
“Sam directed me to commit these crimes,” she said. He “directed us to take customer money to pay loans.”
Expect a full report from Liz Lopatto later today.
Former Alameda Research CEO and ex-girlfriend of Sam Bankman-Fried Caroline Ellison has begun testifying in the fraud trial against SBF.
On the stand today during Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud trial, Gary Wang dove into his evolving explanation of the infamous (and now-deleted) SBF tweet saying that “FTX is fine. Assets are fine,” that he posted the day before Binance’s acquisition announcement, which is when things truly came apart.
The Verge reporter Liz Lopatto is back in a New York City courtroom today, as Sam Bankman-Fried’s friends turned cooperating witnesses continue to take the stand in the case against the fallen FTX boss.
We broke down FTX CTO Gary Wang’s testimony / code review on Friday, and today the case restarted with him still on the stand, and former Alameda CEO and SBF ex Caroline Ellison is expected to make her appearance later today. Stay tuned here for all of the latest updates from the crypto exchange fraud trial.
Before they collapsed, FTX and Alameda Research “massed a roster of portfolio companies that included major names in the industry, such as stablecoin providers Circle and Paxos, blockchain developer Aptos Labs and crypto bank Anchorage Digital,” Bloomberg writes.
But venture funding for the crypto world has plunged; selling those stakes could further depress startup valuations.
“If I were a juror, I would rather hear my story than either defense or prosecution,” Lewis tells Andrew Chow at Time. Also:
I want to ask about some details that appeared in various charging documents and complaints against Sam but are featured less prominently or not at all in your book. One is that Bankman-Fried allegedly bribed Chinese officials to release money from a frozen Alameda account.
I know too much about that, and it seemed like a distraction.
Gary Wang supervised the code that gave Alameda special privileges at FTX. But it’s hard to conclude anyone but Sam Bankman-Fried gave the orders.
The government’s prosecution of Sam Bankman-Fried continues where it left off Thursday, with another former college roommate and alleged co-conspirator testifying against the former FTX CEO about exactly how all that customer money ended up being used for SBF’s other interests.
You can read up on all of the details about the missing billions right here, ahead of another trial update later today from The Verge’s Liz Lopatto, who is in the courtroom right now.
Two of Bankman-Fried’s MIT roommates make a damning case for the prosecution.
Liz Lopatto is on the ground, covering the Sam Bankman-Fried trial. But if you want even more curly-haired crypto baby in your life, our pals at New York will be reporting it out in their excellent newsletter Court Appearances.
[New York Magazine]
I expect to hear a lot more about that expensive Bahamas penthouse during today’s hearings in the case of the former FTX CEO, and possibly some fireworks on the cross, as Adam Yedidia is immunized from prosecution.
The prosecution came out swinging. Oddly, Bankman-Fried’s defense didn’t.
Per Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press, a witness in the ongoing Sam Bankman-Fried trial had to spell out “D-O-G-E” in response to a question from a prosecutor. It doesn’t look like there were any follow-up questions about a cryptocurrency based on a meme. It’s probably for the best.
The government is in the middle of a trial with Google, heading toward one with Amazon, and in general trying to change the way we think about monopolies. Also: Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial has begun, and it has already been eventful. All that, and an ebook debate, on the flagship podcast of the Sherman Act.
We don’t have a jury yet for the trial of the former crypto CEO, but we will soon. After that, it’s opening arguments and, if I’m lucky, our first witness.
The first day of the trial is over, but we haven’t selected a jury yet.
Bankman-Fried, who appeared with a shorter haircut and sporting a suit, wasn’t offered a plea deal because when the government raised the question of plea discussions, the defense said no, said Nicholas Roos, one of the federal prosecutors. Two prospective jurors lost money in crypto, one along with his twin brother; another potential juror’s fiancé lost in crypto as well.
There were a couple Madoff mentions, as well. We should have a jury and opening statements tomorrow.
The earlybirds are here for the Sam Bankman-Fried trial. Yes, I’m one of them.
Michael Lewis, interviewed on his time with Sam Bankman-Fried, says:
I do think that if he had the internet, he could survive jail forever. Without having a constant stream of information to react to— I think he may go mad. If you gave Sam Bankman-Fried a choice (this is quite serious) of living in a $39 million penthouse in the Bahamas without the internet, or the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn with the internet, there’s no question in my mind he’d take the jail.