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The trial of Bankman - Fried , the former CEO and co - founder of collapsed crypto exchange FTX , is entering its next chapter as minutes sum up Thursday . As confirmed during a teleconference Wednesday , SBF will be taking the stand , along with a handful of other witness as the onus shifts toward the demurrer after the criminal prosecution fetch its case to its termination .
As former federal prosecutor Josh Naftalis told TechCrunch , SBF taking to the standstill in his own trial is a “ Hail Mary ” forwards of a verdict and potential sentencing for seven counts draw to humbug and money laundering .
“ Once it goes to cross[-examination ] , he does n’t get to say , ‘ I ’m done , ’ ” Naftalis said . “ He ca n’t just walk out if he does n’t like how it ’s going . ”
Naftalis spoke at distance about what come next in the trial , and address common misconception about the criminal prosecution and defense in the latest instalment of TechCrunch ’s Chain Reaction podcast , which you may listen to below , or onApple PodcastsorSpotify .
The SBF trial is one of the biggest cases of its kind within the crypto space . Ourresident crypto expert Jacquelyn Melinekhas been on the ground at the trial since it started , and continue to pass over the ins and outs of the proceedings . But the test has been on break from October 20 to today , so there ’s mass to catch up on if you involve a refresher course ahead of it inscribe its net few phases .
For those in need of a total refresher on the case , her breakdown of how FTX went from the third - largest crypto exchangevalued at a crown of $ 32 billion to failure will get you up to focal ratio .
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How to follow the SBF trial
The trialkicked off with jury selectionOctober 3 . From there , access to the legal proceeding is limited , as no devices are allowed ; report are being physically put together within the court ( or send out to overflow room ) .
Beyond our casual coverage , extra expertness and comment will live on TechCrunch+ . There , you may find stories like this in - astuteness breakdown ofwhat to wait from both sides of the SBF face , where the criminal prosecution and defense could gain ground or fall little in their argument andwhat the takeaways were from the opening disputation .
SBF trial: What we learned in week three
The third week of the trial have a couple of notable bit for the criminal prosecution , including FTX ’s former worldwide counsel Can Sun . He , like many of SBF ’s former colleagues , opt to join forces with authorities and testified that SBF need him to create a theoretic “ sound justification ” for the use of one million million in consumer funds just days beforeFTX filed for bankruptcy .
Robert Boroujerdi , managing film director of the hedge investment firm Third Point , testified about his experience working with SBF and FTX , in a partnership that finally lead in a $ 60 million investment and a lack of consciousness about the especial relationship between Alameda Research and FTX . Had he known of such a relationship , he testified that Third Point would not have endow in FTX in the first piazza .
And originally in the week , a University of Notre Dame professor who help the political science prosecution of Enron and WorldCom , Peter Easton , bear witness about what he uncovered after trace the current of billions of one dollar bill between Alameda Research and FTX . Much of tell backing came from customers , and Easton testified that he determine that substance abuser deposition were used by both FTX and Alameda to purchase real estate , make investing or unmediated funding toward political cause and Greek valerian .
SBF trial: What we learned in week two
The 2nd week of the trial ’s standout testimonycame from Alameda Research ’s former CEO Caroline Ellison , who claim she accept $ 14 billion from customers to pay back debt to lenders , using them as a line of course credit under the teaching of SBF.Ellison also went into point about how a $ 2 billion speculation fund , FTX Ventures , was funded by money that had antecedently been allocate to Alameda from third - party lenders .
And though there are no charge of bribery in the case , Ellison also testified to paying Chinese functionary $ 150 millionto restitute access to $ 1 billion in frozen trading account .
SBF trial: What we learned in the week one
As expected , the scuttle statement in the SBF trial were spicy . The prosecution paint a picture of an empire “ built on Trygve Halvden Lie ” and made a point to show factual pictures of SBF alongside rich and herculean figure to instance the flower of his power and influence prior to FTX ’s implosion .
“ This man stole billions of dollars from thousands of people , ” prosecuting attorney Thane Rehn narrate the homage . “ He defrauded advanced investor and lenders , and he evacuate the account of average customers , too . He buy himself wealthiness , power and influence . ”
The defence force , on the other hand , depicted SBF and his colleagues as in over their pass , without poorly - will as FTX fall in around them .
“ Sam and his fellow were building the plane as they were take flight it , ” defending team attorney Mark Cohen said . “ They had to fancy out how to navigate a world where they were running FTX , build out its systems , dealing with hacking threats , oversee the citation risk of their customer , managing hundreds of employees , all while work up up their actual commutation . ”
Read a recap of the prosecution and defense ’s full line here .
FTX ’s Colorado - founder and CTO Gary Wang testified Thursday on the extent to which Alameda Research was used for whatever purposes he and SBF check fit . The crypto trading house , according to Wang , pulled funding straightaway from FTX client , whose transactions would be funneled toward Alameda and then directed elsewhere .
Check here for our summing up of Wang ’s testimony so far , resulting from a guilty plea in December 2022 .
Thursday also brought in testimonial from Matt Huang , cobalt - founder and managing partner at crypto investiture firm Paradigm . That business firm invested $ 278 million in FTX across 2021 and 2022 , and is part of a socio-economic class - natural process lawsuit accusing it and others of bunco customers by promoting FTX .
His testimony centered around being left uninformed about FTX ’s utilization of client money to keep the Alameda Research afloat , a practice that Huang says would have halt his involvement . The full equipment failure of his testimony on his relationship with FTX , stretching back to 2019,can be found right here .
We also got a looking at at the composition ofthe SBF trial ’s jury , which ranges from a string director to a crawl in investing banker who attend to Stanford University . you may listen toa special joint sequence of our podcasts Equity and Chain Reactionto get a effective horse sense of the vibe between the jurors and the eternal rest of the court .
For a full rundown of our coverage of the SBF trial , check below :
