Sam Bankman-Fried calmly testified Tuesday that he felt “regret” for not questioning how his hedge fund “borrowed” billions of dollars in FTX consumer funds — but insisted the alleged theft was “justified.”
“I deeply regret not looking into it more deeply,” the 31-year-old crypto ace said in Manhattan federal court, referring to his hedge fund Alameda and his unheard-of arrangement with his cryptocurrency exchange that allowed the fund to siphon. billions of dollars off FTX using almost unlimited lines of credit.
However, the person who made the deal, who claimed subordinates made the arrangement, did not take responsibility or show any remorse for his client’s funds disappearing in November 2022.
Bankman-Fried also went on to claim at his fraud trial that he “doesn’t remember” the moment during FTX’s financial crisis that included him instructing lieutenant Nishad Singh to build the code that allowed Alameda to allegedly steal funds.
Singh and his fellow former FTX executives-turned-federal witnesses have all testified that Bankman-Fried was calling the shots at Alameda and that the arrogant MIT graduate directed Singh to give Alameda so-called “backdoor” access to client funds.
Billion-dollar fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried kept saying “I don’t remember” when asked to recount key moments in his crypto exchange collapse in a Manhattan court Tuesday. REUTERS The slain crypto figure faces life in prison if convicted of seven counts of conspiracy and fraud.AP
“I don’t recall giving any instructions related to it,” insisted Bankman-Fried, speaking in a robotic nasal tone, when pressed about Alameda’s unblocked production during her final day of testimony.
Despite her “regrets”, Bankman-Fried later admitted that no one at the company was fired for masterminding the “borrowing” of billions of dollars of consumer funds.
Bankman-Fried also claimed not to remember giving the prime minister of the Bahamas and his wife courtside seats to a Miami Heat basketball game in what was then called the FTX Arena — before being presented with clear evidence of doing so. US federal prosecutors later dropped campaign finance charges against SBF at the behest of Bahamian authorities.
Meanwhile, the ex-crypto golden boy’s frequent attempts to wriggle out of prosecutor Danielle Sassoon’s questions again led to a rebuke from a federal judge.
Bankman-Fried’s father, Stanford Law School professor Joseph Bankman pictured here with his wife and SBF’s mother, attended Tuesday’s hearing. AFP via Getty Images
“Mr. Bankman-Fried, just answer that question,” an angry Judge Lewis Kaplan told the defendant at one point during questioning.
Bankman-Fried’s father, Stanford Law School professor Joseph Bankman, was present Tuesday and watched from the gallery.
After Bankman-Fried left the courtroom, prosecutors abandoned initial plans to call one or two other witnesses to rebut aspects of her testimony and rest their case.
Closing statements in the trial are scheduled to begin Wednesday morning.
Bankman-Fried faces up to life in prison if convicted of the seven counts of fraud and conspiracy he faces.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
