Sam Bankman-Fried judge cracks jokes, loses patience with defense at FTX trial
investing.comBy Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) — Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud trial has featured dense testimony about computer code, cryptocurrency and corporate finance, but U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan's dry sense of humor has provided the occasional moment of levity.
Kaplan, a senior judge in Manhattan federal court, has also frequently scolded the 31-year-old former billionaire's defense lawyers for asking repetitive questions, once accusing them outside the jury's presence of trying to «set a record for the longest trial.»
The trial, in which Bankman-Fried is seeking to defend himself from charges of stealing billions of dollars from customers of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange, is far from the first high-profile matter the 78-year-old Bill Clinton appointee has overseen recently.
Earlier this year, Kaplan oversaw a civil trial in which a jury found Donald Trump had sexually abused and defamed the writer E. Jean Carroll and ordered him to pay her $5 million. Last year, he presided over a civil trial in which the actor Kevin Spacey defeated a sexual abuse claim.
Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five of conspiracy.
While known for his no-nonsense demeanor in the courtroom, Kaplan — a Harvard Law School graduate born in the New York City borough of Staten Island — has nonetheless peppered Bankman-Fried's trial proceedings with witty comebacks and the occasional self-deprecating quip.
When one prospective juror said they did not understand how cryptocurrency works, Kaplan said, «You probably have a lot of company in this courtroom.» When another told him they had slight hearing loss, Kaplan said, «You're not the only one here with slight hearing loss, at my age.»
Once testimony was underway, after
Read more on investing.com
