On the primary day of Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial, in a darkish mahogany-walled court docket room on the Southern District of New York, federal district Judge Lewis Kaplan requested the U.S. authorities if it had ever offered any plea provides to the defendant.
The authorities’s lawyers confirmed they didn’t.
It was a sluggish begin to the six-week-long trial. The jury choice course of started Tuesday, and the room was quiet and sober, apart from conversations involving the choose, each events and the possible jurors.
Bankman-Fried shed his common cargo pants and T-shirt for a go well with and tie; his often messy curls appear to have been trimmed a bit, too. He didn’t discuss a lot, solely talking out as soon as to say “yes” when Kaplan requested if he understood he had the suitable to testify if he needed to.
Kaplan mentioned the trial may probably take lower than six weeks. “It rarely takes that long,” however there’s no assure, he added. “There’s a good likelihood” the trial might be over by Thanksgiving, although.
The seven fees being offered in opposition to Bankman-Fried are severe, however Judge Kaplan presided with a extra playful, pleasant and optimistic air. He reminded the possible jurors that they shouldn’t analysis or use any digital gadgets to search for information.
Some potential jurors claimed they heard in regards to the extremely publicized case on the information, podcasts and different media; one claimed her employer, enterprise capital and personal fairness agency Insight Partners, invested in FTX and its sister firm Alameda, illustrating how intently tied this trial might be.
Kaplan anticipates that the 12 jurors and 6 alternates might be chosen by finish of the day, if not early Wednesday morning prior to the opening statements from each events.