The legal trial of former cryptocurrency magnate Sam Bankman-Fried accomplished its second day on Wednesday. The prosecution and protection each gave opening statements, and interviewed the primary two witnesses, together with a buyer of FTX and Bankman-Fried’s former pal and ex-Alameda and FTX worker Adam Yedidia.
The prosecution painted Bankman-Fried as somebody who knowingly dedicated fraud to attain nice wealth, energy and affect. The protection countered that Bankman-Fried acted in good religion, by no means meant to commit fraud or steal, and mainly received in over his head.
The prosecution: Bankman-Fried’s empire was ‘constructed on lies’
In his opening argument, simply half-past midday, the prosecutor Thane Rhen started by portray an image. “One 12 months in the past, Bankman-Fired was on prime of the world.”
And for what it’s value, he arguably was.
Bankman-Fried was value billions of {dollars}, residing in a $35 million penthouse with pals and coworkers; he had two huge companies, a crypto alternate, FTX, and crypto hedge fund, Alameda Analysis (each of which have since gone bankrupt.)
“He had wealth, he had energy, he had affect,” Rhen mentioned. “However all of it was constructed on lies.”
Rhen alleged that Bankman-Fried “took cash he didn’t have” to construct an empire. Rhen repeated a number of occasions, and loudly, that Bankman-Fried stole “billions of {dollars}” from FTX clients so he might spend the cash on “lavish homes for himself, his dad and mom, and his pals,” acquire affect in Washington and meet celebrities.
