It’s the fifth week of Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial for seven expenses of fraud and cash laundering throughout to his time as the CEO of former crypto alternate FTX. He’s been on the stand since Thursday to testify, and there was a tangible shift of tone Monday when prosecutors took over for cross examination.
On Friday and for a part of Monday morning, Bankman-Fried, wearing one other outsized grey go well with, answered questions from his predominant protection lawyer, Mark Cohen. The courtroom benches for the general public had been full.
At the top of the protection’s examination, Cohen requested Bankman-Fried why he spoke out in public shortly after he stepped down as CEO and FTX filed for chapter. “I felt like it was the right thing to do to talk about what happened,” he stated. “I had my memory . . . [but] very little beyond that,” he stated, referring to him being reduce off from entry to FTX’s inside paperwork after his departure.
“I wanted to apologize for what happened and explain this as best I can at the time,” he stated. After FTX collapsed, Bankman-Fried went on “Good Morning America” and different retailers, as nicely as Twitter Spaces with web personalities like Mario Nawfal.
Once assistant U.S. lawyer for the SDNY Danielle Sassoon started to cross-examine Bankman-Fried in entrance of a jury, he was fast to reply, however solely repeated a handful of unsure expressions, like “I don’t recall,” “I may have,” “Sounds plausible,” “I’m not sure,” “Possibly,” and “Sounds right.” He waffled so many instances that the overflow room, stuffed with public spectators and different reporters, echoed with laughter.
Sassoon appeared to be attempting to painting the previous CEO as a serial liar, utilizing his extremely public previous interviews earlier than his arrest in mid-December as ammunition.