The trial of the former CEO of the defunct crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), continued on October 31, with the prosecution cross-examining the defendant. Despite the line of questioning from the prosecutor, SBF managed to spin his narrative on what went on at the crypto exchange. However, it remains to be seen if this will be enough to sway the jury. 

So far, the prosecution had been able to establish that Sam Bankman-Fried was in the know of everything that went on at the defunct crypto exchange and trading firm Alameda Research and, in fact, was the mastermind of all the illicit activities that went on there.

With this in mind, the defendant was hell-bent on creating doubts in the minds of the jury members. While on cross-examination, the defendant feigned ignorance to some of the questions put forward by the federal prosecutor as to what went on at both companies.

The prosecution asked the defendant if his employees had told him about the bug in the fiat account. In response, he stated that he only became aware because he overheard when they were talking about it. However, he was too preoccupied to deal with the situation at the time. 

As to why he didn’t follow up on it, Sam Bankman-Fried stated that his employees had told him that they were working on it, and considering the amount of faith he had in them, he trusted them to handle it. He also alluded to how they worked as a team at the crypto exchange, and he wasn’t necessarily in charge of handling everything, as everyone had tasks delegated to them. 

While still on cross-examination, the FTX founder was asked about who made the trading decisions at Alameda, of which he suggested that he wasn’t aware of some of the things that went on in the firm despite being the CEO at the time.

He was quick to point out that former associate and Alameda’s ex-CEO Caroline Ellison was the head of trading at the time the North Dimension account was set up. 

The defendant, however, seemed to shoot himself in the leg when he stated that he believed that spending customers’ deposits “folded” into risk management. Probably to show good faith, he then stated that he was simply concerned about customers’ portfolios during his time as CEO of Alameda. 

Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried also admitted that he “was paying attention but not as much” but as much as he should have as the CEO of FTX. From his testimony, it is evident that the defendant is simply trying to counter the statements of his former associates that he was totally in control of everything that went on in both companies. 

The trial is set to continue on November 1, with the defense expected to close its case this week, after which the case will move on to rebuttals. The case is expected to come to a close by the end of next week, with a verdict from the jury coming soon after. 

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