FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried set to testify in criminal trial

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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is predicted to start testifying in his personal defence on Thursday, after the federal government rests its case within the prison trial over the collapse of his cryptocurrency empire.

The weird transfer by the 31-year-old, who faces the prospect of a lifetime behind bars if convicted on costs together with wire fraud and cash laundering, comes after a New York jury heard several days’ worth of damning testimony from Bankman-Fried’s former colleagues and buddies, as nicely from his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who pleaded responsible final yr and agreed to co-operate with the federal government.

Defence attorneys are likely to advise shoppers in opposition to testifying, frightened of direct questioning from prosecutors. However Bankman-Fried has been eager to current his facet of the story ever since crypto change FTX collapsed final November with a multibillion-dollar gap in its stability sheet. He has granted a number of interviews to journalists and the creator Michael Lewis from his mother and father’ Californian house earlier than he was jailed for breaching his bail situations this summer season.

After being sworn in, Bankman-Fried will first reply questions beneath oath from his personal legal professionals earlier than being cross-examined by prosecutors.

Attorneys for Bankman-Fried are prone to attempt to elicit testimony during which the previous entrepreneur — who has lengthy claimed he was amassing wealth with a view to ultimately give it away to charitable causes — underlines he was appearing in “good religion” earlier than being caught unawares by a pointy downturn within the crypto market and being smeared by a competitor.

“If he will get on the stand and seems unbelievable or untrustworthy — or extraordinarily plausible, and also you see a extremely sympathetic human facet to him — that could possibly be game-changing,” mentioned Rachel Maimin, a former federal prosecutor within the US lawyer’s workplace that charged Bankman-Fried, who’s now in non-public apply at Lowenstein Sandler.

“In a case like this the place the entire whole case rotates round [Bankman-Fried’s] way of thinking and his intent, no person is ready to testify to that higher than the particular person himself,” she added. If jurors are satisfied, “will probably be an important proof within the case”.

In a letter to the decide final week, Bankman-Fried’s legal professionals additionally raised issues that he was not receiving doses of Adderall, a drug used to deal with consideration deficit hyperactivity dysfunction, whereas he’s in courtroom, arguing that this might impair his capacity to testify in his personal defence. The courtroom subsequently heard that the treatment difficulty had been resolved.