The FTX founder will make the rare, and potentially risky, move of taking the stand when his defense begins its case
Sam Bankman-Fried will take the rare, and potentially precarious, step of testifying on his own behalf at his ongoing criminal fraud trial, The New York Times reports.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, Mark Cohen, confirmed the embattled FTX founder’s plan to testify during a recent hearing with prosecutors and the judge overseeing the case (the trial has been on break since last Friday, Oct. 20). Bankman-Fried could take the stand as soon as tomorrow, Oct. 26, though an exact date is unclear. He’ll be called when the defense begins its case, which is expected to be soon, with the prosecution set to rest after calling a final witness.
Taking the stand will give Bankman-Fried — who has pleaded not guilty to seven fraud-related charges tied to the collapse of FTX last year — the opportunity to share his side of the story and try to counter the narrative prosecutors have been building. However, the decision does carry certain risks as Bankman-Fried will also have to sit for a cross-examination from prosecutors.
Bankman-Fried’s trial began Oct. 3, and over the first few weeks, prosecutors have built their case around the testimony of people like top FTX executives Gary Wang and Nishad Singh (both are cooperating with the government and have pleaded guilty to fraud charges of their own). Wang, for instance, testified that Bankman-Fried told him and Singh to make a secret backdoor in the FTX code that would allow customer funds to be moved to Alameda Research, a crypto hedge fund Bankman-Fried also co-founded. Prosecutors have alleged that Bankman-Fried stole billions from FTX customers and “used that money for his personal benefit.”
Arguably the prosecution’s biggest witness was Alameda’s CEO — and Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend — Caroline Ellison (who’s also pleaded guilty to fraud charges). During her eight hours on the stand, Ellison testified that Bankman-Fried and others bribed a Chinese official with $100 million in 2021 to unfreeze $1 billion in Alameda funds that’d been stuck on a crypto exchange in China. She also said that in fall 2022 — right before FTX collapsed — Bankman-Fried was intent on raising capital by selling FTX shares to Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman in an ostensible attempt to cover cover up the company’s alleged fraud.
“If we were able to raise money, that was money that we could use to repay the money we had borrowed from FTX customers,” Ellison said.