On the primary day of Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial, in a darkish mahogany-walled court docket room on the Southern District of New York, federal district Decide Lewis Kaplan requested the U.S. authorities if it had ever supplied any plea affords to the defendant.
The federal government’s legal professionals confirmed they didn’t.
It was a sluggish begin to the six-week-long trial. The jury choice course of started Tuesday, and the room was quiet and sober, apart from conversations involving the choose, each events and the potential jurors.
Bankman-Fried shed his typical cargo pants and T-shirt for a swimsuit and tie; his often messy curls appear to have been trimmed a bit, too. He didn’t speak a lot, solely talking out as soon as to say “sure” when Kaplan requested if he understood he had the best to testify if he wished to.
Kaplan mentioned the trial may possible take lower than six weeks. “It hardly ever takes that lengthy,” however there’s no assure, he added. “There’s probability” the trial might be over by Thanksgiving, although.
The seven prices being introduced in opposition to Bankman-Fried are critical, however Decide Kaplan presided with a extra playful, pleasant and optimistic air. He reminded the potential jurors that they shouldn’t analysis or use any digital units to search for information.
Some potential jurors claimed they heard concerning the extremely publicized case on the information, podcasts and different media; one claimed her employer, enterprise capital and personal fairness agency Perception Companions, invested in FTX and its sister firm Alameda, illustrating how carefully tied this trial may very well be.
Kaplan anticipates that the 12 jurors and 6 alternates might be chosen by finish of the day, if not early Wednesday morning previous to the opening statements from each events.
