He mentioned that Alameda “borrowed” them
On Friday, Sam Bankman-Fried sat on the stand, as soon as once more in an outsized grey go well with and purple tie, and testified in entrance of a jury. He’s on trial for seven costs associated to fraud and cash laundering and has been sitting silently the previous 4 weeks, ready for his probability to talk.
Bankman-Fried co-founded FTX in 2019 alongside Gary Wang, after they co-founded crypto buying and selling agency Alameda Analysis within the fall of 2017. On the time, they have been 25 years previous with no historical past of beginning an organization, he mentioned. When he obtained into the crypto world, he mentioned he knew “principally nothing.” However over time, he mentioned, his imaginative and prescient grew to “construct one of the best [crypto exchange] product available on the market” and to “transfer the ecosystem ahead.”
“Turned out [to be] the alternative of that,” Bankman-Fried mentioned. “Lots of people obtained harm.”
When requested by his lead lawyer, Mark Cohen, whether or not he defrauded or took buyer funds, Bankman-Fried mentioned, “No, I didn’t.”
On Thursday, Choose Lewis Kaplan heard from Bankman-Fried without a jury to find out whether or not his testimony could possibly be shared with jurors. Amongst these subjects: FTX’s information retention coverage, the truth that he “skimmed over” phrases of service, Alameda’s use of the exchanges’ buyer funds, and extra details about Dan Friedberg, who Bankman-Fried employed to be FTX’s common counsel.
On the stand on Friday, Bankman-Fried appeared extra considerate along with his solutions than he had yesterday. “I made a lot of small errors,” Bankman-Fried mentioned Friday. However he mentioned the largest mistake was having no threat administration group at FTX, which led to “important oversights.”