FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried takes the stand in fraud trial

euronews.com:

Sam Bankman-Fried got a test run taking the stand at his New York criminal trial on Thursday, after a judge sent jurors home but let him demonstrate portions of his testimony before deciding what parts of it he'll allow.

The defendant is expected to face the jury on Friday when he testifies about his version of how his multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency empire grew into a giant in the industry and then collapsed, causing billions of dollars in losses that prosecutors blame on his extravagant spending on investments, donations and a lavish lifestyle.

During nearly three hours of testimony on Thursday, Bankman-Fried tried to show that the presence of lawyers when he made decisions about how he spent customers' money led him to think he was acting legally.

Assistant US attorney Danielle Sassoon drilled him with the sort of questions he'll likely face during cross-examination. She frequently got choppy answers in which the crypto mogul seemed unsure of the conversations he'd had with lawyers and unaware of how his companies were functioning. 

Staring downward and apologising repeatedly, he would many times rephrase the prosecutor's question, saying “I wouldn't phrase it that way.”

Sassoon pressed Bankman-Fried on why he hired a general counsel who had worked at a company that had a criminal insider trading scandal.

“I did want to find a general counsel who would be comfortable with the business being allowed to take reasonable risks,” the defendant said, adding that he did not want his top lawyer restraining the company from risk-taking.

Later, Sassoon asked if he was aware that FTX's general counsel was using illegal narcotics with the employees, to which Bankman-Fried's lawyer Mark Cohen objected. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan sustained