Sam Bankman-Fried Took Risks at FTX. Will He Bet on His Own Testimony?

livemint.com:

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, known for his appetite for risky bets, is mulling perhaps his biggest gamble yet: testifying in his own defense. The onetime crypto star, on trial in New York on allegations of fraud, money laundering and other offenses, has spent nearly three weeks watching some of his former close friends and colleagues take the stand and offer what appeared to be damning testimony. Bankman-Fried, they told jurors, knowingly directed and committed an array of criminal acts that led to the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange and the loss of billions of dollars in customer funds.

With federal prosecutors set to wrap up their case this week, Bankman-Fried’s legal team will be searching for some way to change the momentum. While taking the stand in one’s own defense is usually considered too perilous a step to leave to chance, the state of the trial, plus Bankman-Fried’s limited options, point toward testifying as his best shot, lawyers said. “Under the current state of play, unless Sam does something dramatic, he is almost certainly going to be convicted," said Evan Barr, a former federal prosecutor and partner at the law firm Reed Smith.

Bankman-Fried’s likely hope would be that his testimony in the least wins over a couple of jurors, leading to a hung jury, Barr said. Lawyers typically advise against taking the stand, sometimes even conducting mock trials and cross-examinations of their clients to demonstrate how self-defense testimony can go badly when facing hostile questions from prosecutors. But for high-profile defendants, the temptation to tell their own story is particularly strong, said Robert S.