The second day for Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial was crammed with jury choice, opening statements and testimonies from the primary two witnesses, with a peek into what could also be in retailer.
His attorneys arrived to the courtroom round 9:20 a.m., 10 minutes earlier than clock-in time. Bankman-Fried adopted shortly after. Though he was as soon as recognized for his scraggly, wild, curly hair and informal outfits of cargo shorts and T-shirts, Bankman-Fried was carrying a grey go well with and purple tie with a tighter, new haircut with a part of his sideburns shaved off.
All through the morning, Bankman-Fried appeared primarily glued at his laptop computer, on the entrance of the room towards federal choose Lewis Kaplan, or at his predominant legal professional, Mark Cohen, nodding in personal and whispering. He shook his proper leg incessantly underneath the desk, which rings true to his well-known behavior of being a fidgeter.
When the potential jurors walked in, Bankman-Fried didn’t swivel his head to look, however saved himself wanting ahead, solely glancing out of the nook of his eyes to see these within the jury sales space.
However round 12:05 p.m., after jury choice was full and 12 jurors and 6 alternates had been sworn in, Bankman-Fried checked out them. Inside the subsequent six weeks, they may determine whether or not or not Bankman-Fried is responsible on seven fees associated to fraud and cash laundering.
Nearly instantly after the jurors had been picked, Bankman-Fried started to have a look at them, squinting of their route, then wanting again to his mound of printed papers beside him and the court-controlled laptop computer display in entrance of him.
At one level, he even put his fingers in his mouth and started gnawing at them. He additionally smirked barely towards one of many jurors. It was unclear in the event that they acknowledged him.
The 12 jurors had been a considerably eclectic group of principally girls – and three males – starting from 33 to 69 years-old. To be thoughtful, we omitted their names, however right here had been some particulars we acquired about who they’re, so as of introduction, whereas sitting within the courtroom.
People with an asterisk disclosed they’ve beforehand served as a juror.
- 39 year-old feminine doctor assistant, 10 weeks pregnant with a background in medication, husband does net improvement.
- 33 year-old feminine nurse who lives alone in Westchester, New York.
- 40 year-old feminine social employee who’s at the moment unemployed.*
- 53 year-old feminine Duke College graduate, divorced keep at dwelling mom of two youngsters, beforehand labored in nonprofits managing fundraisers.
- 59 year-old male, married with three youngsters, one among his kids works at a financial institution.*
- 50 year-old feminine Metro North prepare conductor and mom of 5 youngsters with three residing at dwelling and two in faculty.
- 47 year-old feminine highschool librarian, single and lives together with her cats, sister and sick mom.
- 65 year-old feminine retired corrections officer and mom of three youngsters.
- 61 year-old male US Postal Service worker, no spouse, no youngsters.*
- 43 year-old feminine from Ukraine, who does IT at Bloomberg, and has been within the U.S. for 15 years and is divorced with two youngsters.
- 55 year-old feminine particular schooling trainer, previously from Bermuda the place she did banking, attended Waterloo College for undergraduate and acquired masters levels from NYU and Seton Corridor College.
- 69 year-old male, retired funding banker from Hong Kong, attended Rice College and Stanford College, has a spouse and no kids, and identified with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Because the second day went on, most of the jurors saved their eyes laser-focused on the events’ talking. At instances, some jurors expressed confusion or disinterest as opening arguments ensued and the primary two witnesses took the stand.
Given that almost all of the jurors don’t have a background in finance – or crypto for that matter – it could possibly be a extremely complicated subject to dive into the deep finish. As a crypto reporter myself, I discover some issues extremely technical and complicated, so I give them grace on that entrance.
Time will inform in the event that they grasp these ideas – and grasp a pen and paper to take notes. For what it’s value, nearly all of them didn’t write something down throughout day two, however day three and so forth might convey on a special tune.
