FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried plans to testify at his fraud trial, his lawyer instructed a federal choose Wednesday, ending hypothesis over whether or not a person who embraced the highlight throughout his years atop the cryptocurrency world might stay silent after prosecutors portrayed him as a grasping entrepreneur who stole billions of {dollars} from prospects.
Lawyer Mark Cohen instructed Decide Lewis A. Kaplan that he deliberate to name three witnesses “after which our consumer can also be going to be testifying” after prosecutors relaxation early Thursday.
Cohen spoke throughout a telephone and video convention in Manhattan federal court docket after the choose instructed him: “It is time to inform me what protection case, if any, you are going to placed on.”
The choose instructed him that he did not should say but whether or not Bankman-Fried would testify, however Cohen volunteered that he would.
Even so, prosecutors and the choose later mentioned the likelihood that closing arguments might happen as early as subsequent week.
Featured VideoFTX CEO John J. Ray instructed Congress that FTX’s collapse was brought on by ‘grossly inexperienced and unsophisticated people’ who lacked oversight and management.
Bankman-Fried, 31, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he looted the financial accounts of his prospects and buyers to stay lavishly and bolster the status of himself and his corporations by means of giant donations to charity and political candidates.
Alameda Analysis, a hedge fund he began in 2017, and FTX, a crypto change that started working in 2019, turned so distinguished within the crypto trade that celebrities together with NFL quarterback Tom Brady and comic Larry David did commercials that put a shine on what seemed to be a surprising success story.
Over the past month, prosecutors have leaned closely on testimony from Bankman-Fried’s internal circle, former prime executives who lived in a luxurious penthouse condominium within the Bahamas with their boss earlier than a buyer rush on deposits final November uncovered the lacking billions of {dollars} and precipitated the companies to break down.
![Caroline Ellison is shown before testifying at the trial of her former boss Sam Bankman-Fried h](https://i.cbc.ca/1.7008724.1698328455!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_780/caroline-ellison.jpg)
Former federal prosecutors mentioned the singular purpose for Bankman-Fried on the witness stand is to influence one or two jurors that he is a sympathetic character who simply let FTX’s issues get uncontrolled.
“Solely he is able to telling the story he desires to inform to the jury,” mentioned Rachel Maimin, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan who’s now in personal apply at Lowenstein Sandler LLP.
By testimony and court docket displays, prosecutors have laid out an in depth case alleging that Bankman-Fried directed his former lieutenants to make use of FTX buyer funds to gasoline his ambitions and reckless spending. Jurors have additionally seen textual content messages and group chats by which Bankman-Fried seemed to be callous to the issues at Alameda Analysis and dismissive of the risks of utilizing FTX funds to cowl up Alameda’s points.
Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang and others testified intimately about Bankman-Fried’s behaviour, and his legal professionals have struggled to forged doubt on their testimony. Which means solely Bankman-Fried or different character witnesses can inform his facet of the story, former prosecutors mentioned. And character witnesses are largely seen as ineffective in white-collar circumstances.
“You actually need to get in entrance of the jury that [Bankman-Fried] was performing in good religion when all these different witnesses say he was aspiring to lie, cheat and steal,” mentioned Joshua Naftalis, a associate with Pallas Companions LLP who additionally previously labored as a Manhattan federal prosecutor. “It’ll be a Hail Mary.”
Bankman-Fried has been jailed since August, when Kaplan dominated that he had tried to affect potential trial witnesses and revoked the $250 million personal recognizance bond that had permitted him to stay along with his dad and mom in Palo Alto, Calif., after his December extradition from the Bahamas.