The action-packed third week of Sam Bankman-Fried's historic fraud trial concluded Thursday afternoon in Manhattan federal court. Here's what you missed.
The prosecution started with a bang as Nishad Singh delivered a powerful testimony against the now-disgraced FTX founder.
Singh testified that customer deposits into FTX were "spent and lost" by sister company, Alameda Research, on "real estate investments, VC investments, campaign donations, and speculative events in trading."
The former head of engineering for FTX went on to say Bankman-Fried spent in "excess," claiming that the disgraced crypto founder spent nearly $1 billion on promotional deals for the company.
Bankman-Fried's lavish lifestyle was widely reported on, with the former "king of crypto" bankrolling a $35 million luxury penthouse for himself and nine other FTX and Alameda Research employees. While Singh claimed he had "the nicest room in the house," he often felt "confused" about its "ostentatious" nature.
"I thought about moving out many times," Singh said.
The prosecution went on to share an email from Bankman-Fried in early 2022 detailing a Super Bowl party attended by the FTX founder. Thrown by venture capital firm K5 Global, the party featured "the most impressive collection of people," including former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, and supermodel Kendall Jenner.
Bankman-Fried went on to call K5 Global a "one-stop shop" for establishing important connections before doling out over $300 million in bonuses to the company's founders, Michael Kives and Bryan Baum.
Singh further alleged that Bankman-Fried invested around $200 million in a celebrity-run tequila brand, potentially alluding to
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