U.S. Government Concludes Prosecution Case Against Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried
Summary:
The U.S. Justice Department's legal action against Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried has concluded after over three weeks of testimonials and expert evidence. The case revolved around his involvement with FTX and Alameda, with key witnesses highlighting his participation in over 300 Signal messaging groups and the transfer of FTX assets to the authorities. Bankman-Fried’s legal team expects him to testify for around four hours, as a part of their defense strategy. The trial concluded with closing arguments for both sides, and an eventual decision is anticipated soon. Despite this, Bankman-Fried faces a second trial scheduled for March 2024, where he will have to defend himself against five additional criminal charges.
The prosecution case led by the U.S. Justice Department against Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried, recently came to a close after over three weeks of expert evidence and the testimonials of ex-FTX and Alameda employees. As detailed in courtroom records from Oct. 26, the prosecution ended with FBI agent Mark Troiano, who primarily spoke about SBF’s participation in over 300 Signal messaging app groups. Subsequent to Troiano’s evidence, Bankman-Fried’s legal team requested a dismissal, but this was instantly overruled by Judge Lewis Kaplan. SBF’s lawyers, Mark Cohen and Christian Everdell, introduced two witnesses ahead of Bankman-Fried. Krystal Rolle, a Bahamas-located lawyer who had previously represented the former FTX CEO, gave evidence that she attended a Securities Commission of the Bahamas meeting with SBF in November 2022 where she observed him transferring FTX assets to the authorities.Joseph Pimbley from the litigation consultancy company, PF2 Securities, explained that he had been remunerated more than $50,000 to pull data from Amazon Web Services related to Alameda Research’s credit line with FTX and data concerning approximately 9 to 11 million users of the cryptocurrency exchange. As of this release, the Justice Department lawyers had yet to cross-examine him.
Courtroom coverage indicates that Judge Kaplan regularly resisted questions the defense posed to witnesses, levy criticisms such as, “This is not beneficial” and “Can we proceed to the core issue?” At the time of this release, although Bankman-Fried had yet to take the stand, his lawyers anticipated his testimony would last roughly four hours. During an Oct. 25 conference call with Kaplan, the defense lawyers communicated intentions for Bankman-Fried to give his account in defense of charges against the former FTX CEO. The prosecution had earlier summoned Caroline Ellison, ex-Alameda CEO; and former FTX top personnel Gary Wang and Nishad Singh to attest to SBF's directive to use FTX assets via Alameda.
The trial concerning Bankman-Fried is forecasted to reach a conclusion in the upcoming business days, with the introduction of final statements and pending any motions lodged by either side. Nonetheless, the ex-FTX CEO faces five additional criminal charges in a subsequent trial, scheduled to start in March 2024. He has entered a plea of not guilty to all levied charges across both cases.
Published At
10/26/2023 4:06:03 PM
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