Sam Bankman-Fried has been on trial on costs of fraud and money laundering for just in excess of 4 months, and the scenario appears like it is ultimately drawing to a close. The prosecution started its closing statements on Wednesday it was the defense’s change just after lunch.
Assistant U.S. attorney Nicolas Roos stood in front of jurors from ten a.m. ET until the courtroom broke for lunch all over 1 p.m. reiterating the prosecution’s scenario: Bankman-Fried lied, created bogus guarantees and is liable for billions of bucks shed for 1000’s of traders on FTX. And on top of that, that Bankman-Fried had many possibilities to occur clean up, but didn’t.
At a person especially dramatic minute, Roos pointed at the defendant and claimed, “Who is accountable? This man: Samuel Bankman-Fried.” The former CEO of FTX did not glance back, but he tilted his head marginally.
In the meantime, Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried’s direct lawyer, said the govt is producing a Hallmark film-like scenario against Bankman-Fried and that he created “bad organization judgments.”
“The governing administration has tried using to paint Sam into some kind of villain, some kind of monster,” Cohen mentioned, utilizing a tender voice. He mentioned that the prosecution has introduced up his seems to be, the $30 million Bahamas condominium in which he lived with other execs, movie star connections and his sex everyday living. The prosecution did this, Cohen explained, “to make him into somebody you dislike … relatively than make the scenario.”
His physical appearance, intimate associations or staying the “worst dressed CEO” have absolutely nothing to do with no matter whether he’s guilty, Cohen explained. “Every movie desires a villain … they wrote him in as [one].”
The prosecutor emphasised how it was completely wrong of FTX to use customers’ money with out their awareness or approval. “It was a common look at: Purchaser money belong to clients and just can’t be utilized,” Roos stated, introducing that even FTX’s phrases of company mentioned that users’ deposits belonged to users.
According to the proof, there was a “huge variation amongst what FTX said it experienced for customers vs . what it basically had” and how billions of dollars have been lacking, Roos stated. “This is not about sophisticated crypto [terms]. It is about deception. It is about lies. It is about stealing greed.”
