As soon as prosecutors call their last witness, FBI Special Agent Marc Troiano, Sam Bankman-Fried is scheduled to testify in his criminal fraud prosecution related to its inception. While Bankman-Fried has attempted to portray the demise of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange as an unavoidable accident, he is exposing himself to difficult questioning from prosecutors. He has given interviews to reporters, launched a Substack newsletter, and tweeted to explain his company’s downfall after it filed for bankruptcy in November 2022.
FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after the previous exchange CEO is alleged to have misused the money of investors and users, losing over $8 billion in the process.In recent weeks, the U.S. Department of Justice has contended that Bankman-Fried oversaw a number of actions that allowed Alameda Research, another of his companies, to steal money and conceal losses until the “house of cards” dramatically collapsed.In their depositions, Bankman-Fried’s former associates and close associates, namely former CEO of Alameda Research Caroline Ellison, former Director of Engineering at FTX Nishad Singh, and former Chief Technology Officer of FTX Gary Wang, all accused him of deliberately ordering them to permit Alameda to withdraw funds from FTX customers and to conceal those activities from investors and the jury in the New York court.
During a teleconference on Wednesday, main defense attorney Mark Cohen stated that the defense also plans to bring financial expert Joseph Pimbley, attorney Krystal Rolle from the Bahamas, and at least one other possible witness.