FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried testifies outside jury's presence
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, testified in his fraud trial on Thursday without the jury present so the judge overseeing the case can first decide what portions of his testimony are admissible.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan's decision came after prosecutors finished presenting their case accusing Bankman-Fried of stealing billions of dollars from customers and the defense presented its first two witnesses.
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Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteIndian School of BusinessISB Digital TransformationVisitIIT DelhiIITD Certificate Programme in Data Science & Machine LearningVisitIIM KozhikodeIIMK Advanced Data Science For ManagersVisit The judge released the jury for the rest of the day following a lunch break. Bankman-Fried briefly sat at the witness stand before the trial resumed, then returned to the defense table.
The prosecution rested its case after presenting 12 days of testimony in federal court in Manhattan in which former close FTX colleagues told the jury he directed them to divert customer funds to his hedge fund and lie to investors and lenders. Bankman-Fried's risky decision to testify gives prosecutors the chance to cross-examine the 31-year-old former billionaire about those claims that he told colleagues to commit crimes.
Bankman-Fried was called to the stand after the defense presented its first two witnesses: Krystal Rolle, Bankman-Fried's lawyer in the Bahamas; and database expert Joseph Pimbley.
Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy. If convicted, he could face decades in prison. Prosecutors have said Bankman-Fried used the misappropriated funds to prop up his
