On Wednesday, Sam Bankman-Fried, the creator of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, will hear closing arguments in his criminal fraud case. On the fourth day of Bankman-Fried’s evidence, the courtroom was packed with more than sixty onlookers, forcing more chairs to be added in the overflow chamber.
Although the proceedings on Tuesday were less hectic than those on Monday, Bankman-Fried spoke in a similar manner. He answered questions about taking back control of FTX after filing for bankruptcy; however, Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon and the judge had issue with his answers since they did not match the questions posed. However, during the redirect examination, which was facilitated by his defence counsel Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried appeared more relaxed, as seen by his openness and humour.
But there were two major holes in the story that continued to be present: Bankman-Fried did not address certain puzzling discussions from Monday, and Sassoon asked whether Bankman-Fried asked his executives about the $8 billion shortfall in his hedge fund, Alameda Research.
After the last witness calls were made by the defence and the department of justice, the criminal fraud case enters its third phase. The closing arguments will be made on Wednesday before the jury deliberates and renders a decision. Based on the chronology of events, it appears that the experiment has been running exactly as planned, with an original expected duration of six weeks.
