He was, for as soon as, not answerable for something however on the mercy of federal prosecutor Danielle Sassoon as she hammered him with questions on private-jet flights, his disdain for regulators and contradictions in his personal testimony.
It was a call that he appeared to right away remorse. Bankman-Fried dodged questions on whether or not he remembered particulars of his alleged crimes, usually opting as an alternative for “no, however I’ll have,” and “I don’t keep in mind.”
The statements had been on the coronary heart of Sassoon’s presentation as she showcased them to the jury, interspersed with huge quantities of proof contradicting his claims. The defendant has given prosecutors a number of materials to work with — each on the stand and within the volumes of commentary he provided as his enterprise rose and after it crashed.
The stakes for Bankman-Fried might hardly be increased. Authorized specialists agree he took a significant threat in deciding to testify, a big gamble that often blows up for defendants when they’re grilled by prosecutors.
As Bankman-Fried most likely noticed it, nevertheless, he needed to make a long-shot bid to shake up the trial after authorities legal professionals offered overwhelming witness and documentary proof towards him that his personal attorneys did little to undermine, former federal prosecutors mentioned. And if the ex-mogul can persuade only one juror that he’s credible, he might deny prosecutors the unanimous judgment they should safe a responsible verdict.
In her cross-examination, Sassoon contrasted Bankman-Fried’s statements on social media and his appearances earlier than congressional hearings along with his personal feedback, which confirmed disdain for his colleagues in addition to for his followers.
At one level, in a textual content to his internal circle of associates, he referred to authorities regulators with a vulgarity. In one other textual content, he crudely disparaged a subset of his followers as “dumb motherf—–s” at the same time as he publicly courted their belief.
Sassoon zeroed in on Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, Alameda Analysis, from which he allegedly had billions of {dollars} of FTX prospects’ funds siphoned with out their information. She pressed the previous government on whether or not he directed Alameda’s dangerous enterprise investments. Bankman-Fried didn’t deny he did and conceded the bets left the corporate too weak, together with the truth that Alameda’s FTX account had particular privileges, like a $65 billion line of credit score on the platform — a singularly enormous quantity.
“I had screwed up there as nicely,” Bankman-Fried mentioned in response to a query about an error in Alameda’s liquidation engine.
Bankman-Fried appeared on edge as prosecutors questioned him. The defendant took on a nervous and higher-than-usual pitched tone, usually pausing for a number of seconds earlier than answering sure or no questions. Within the second half of the cross examination, he sounded sassy and at instances dismissive.
As has change into routine, Bankman-Fried pissed off Decide Lewis A. Kaplan along with his type of reply.
“May you simply reply the query as an alternative of attempting to ask the query?” Kaplan mentioned at one level.
Authorities legal professionals additionally grilled Bankman-Fried on the discrepancies between the model of occasions he described to jurors beginning Friday and the starkly totally different narrative provided by the prosecution’s three key witnesses, all former insiders and shut buddies.
These former high executives in Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire have pleaded responsible to crimes they are saying he directed. They spent weeks describing their ex-boss because the mastermind of a scheme to defraud FTX prospects, testifying that he knowingly tapped billions of {dollars} in buyer funds to pay for dangerous investments, actual property acquisitions and political contributions.
Caroline Ellison, Alameda’s former chief government and Bankman-Fried’s sometimes-romantic companion, testified earlier this month that he “was the one who directed us to take buyer cash to repay our loans,” including the loans had been “within the ballpark of $10 billion.”
She advised jurors she lied repeatedly at his instruction, together with by sending deceptive stability sheets to Alameda’s lenders. And he or she mentioned Bankman-Fried knew for months that the buying and selling agency would face issue repaying what it took from FTX.
In contrast, Bankman-Fried insisted on Friday he constantly acted in good religion and solely realized that Alameda owed $8 billion to FTX within the month earlier than the companies collapsed. He acknowledged making errors — conceding “lots of people received damage” — however insisted he neither defrauded anybody nor took buyer funds.
His protection legal professional additionally tried to color Bankman-Fried as a sympathetic character to the jury, exhibiting texts the place he appeared to consolation a kind of insiders-turned-witnesses, Nishad Singh, whereas FTX was collapsing.
Bankman-Fried has pleaded not responsible to seven felony counts, together with fraud and cash laundering. If convicted, the 31-year-old might spend a long time in jail. The prosecution’s cross-examination will proceed into Tuesday, Sassoon mentioned.
Newmyer reported from Washington.
