Sam Bankman-Fried's trial: four key points raised in opening statements

investing.com:

By Jody Godoy and Luc Cohen

(Reuters) — Jurors in the trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried heard from both sides for the first time on Wednesday, receiving dueling portrayals of key events and players involved in what prosecutors have called a multibillion-dollar fraud that affected thousands of the cryptocurrency exchange's customers.

Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty. Opening statements by prosecutor Thane Rehn and defense lawyer Mark Cohen made it clear that four points of contention, described below, will be crucial to the trial, which is expected to last up to six weeks.

Was Bankman-Fried a power-hungry thief or a «math nerd» startup CEO?

In his opening statement, Rehn said Bankman-Fried used more than $10 billion in FTX customer funds to amass his own wealth, power and influence. Rehn said he bought beachfront property in the Bahamas and donated to a nonprofit his brother founded.

Cohen, Bankman-Fried's attorney, called that depiction a «cartoon of a villain,» and said evidence would show that his client was actually a «math nerd who didn't drink or party.» Bankman-Fried, he said, was in reality a CEO of a startup company that collapsed after it was faced with an unanticipated «perfect storm.»

«It's not a crime to be a CEO of a company that later files for bankruptcy,» he said.

Did FTX collapse because of a smear job or fraud?

From Cohen's point of view, FTX and Alameda Research — a crypto-focused hedge fund also controlled by Bankman-Fried — were casualties of a downturn across the cryptocurrency sector, which was subject to fluctuations based on «many factors that nobody controlled.»

As Bankman-Fried's companies sought to weather the storm, public «attacks» by the crypto press and Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of