On Friday, Sam Bankman-Fried sat on the stand, as soon as once more in an outsized grey go well with and purple tie, and testified in entrance of a jury. He’s on trial for seven fees associated to fraud and cash laundering and has been sitting silently the previous 4 weeks, ready for his likelihood to talk.
Bankman-Fried co-founded FTX in 2019 alongside Gary Wang, after they co-founded crypto buying and selling agency Alameda Analysis within the fall of 2017. On the time, they had been 25 years outdated with no historical past of beginning an organization, he mentioned. When he acquired into the crypto world, he mentioned he knew “mainly nothing.” However over time, he mentioned, his imaginative and prescient grew to “construct the perfect [crypto exchange] product in the marketplace” and to “transfer the ecosystem ahead.”
“Turned out [to be] the alternative of that,” Bankman-Fried mentioned. “Lots of people acquired harm.”
When requested by his lead lawyer, Mark Cohen, whether or not he defrauded or took buyer funds, Bankman-Fried mentioned, “No, I didn’t.”
On Thursday, Decide Lewis Kaplan heard from Bankman-Fried with no jury to find out whether or not Bankman-Fried might say some feedback. Amongst these matters: FTX’s knowledge retention coverage, the truth that he “skimmed over” phrases of service, Alameda’s use of the exchanges’ buyer funds, and extra details about Dan Friedberg, who Bankman-Fried employed to be FTX’s basic counsel.
On the stand on Friday, Bankman-Fried appeared extra considerate along with his solutions than he had the day before today. “I made quite a few small errors,” Bankman-Fried mentioned Friday. However he mentioned the most important mistake was having no threat administration crew at FTX, which led to “vital oversights.”
