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Sam Bankman - Fried has been on test on charges of pretender and money laundering for just over four workweek , and the case reckon like it ’s finally drawing to a close . The prosecution commence its closing financial statement on Wednesday ; it was the defense team ’s turning after tiffin .
Assistant U.S. attorney Nicolas Roos stood in front of juryman from 10 a.m. ET until the court broke for tiffin around 1 p.m. repeat the criminal prosecution ’s fount : Bankman - Fried lied , made false promise and is responsible for for billions of dollar lost for G of investors on FTX . And on top of that , that Bankman - Fried had many chance to arrive clear , but did n’t .
At one especially dramatic moment , Roos channelize at the suspect and said , “ Who is responsible ? This man : Samuel Bankman - Fried . ” The former CEO of FTX did not look back , but he tilted his head slightly .
Meanwhile , Mark Cohen , Bankman - Fried ’s steer attorney , aver the governance is making a Hallmark moving-picture show - same compositor’s case against Bankman - Fried and that he made “ speculative byplay judgments . ”
“ The political science has tried to paint Sam into some sort of villain , some sort of monster , ” Cohen enounce , using a soft interpreter . He mentioned that the prosecution has brought up his looks , the $ 30 million Bahamas flat in which he lived with other execs , celebrity connectedness and his sex biography . The pursuance did this , Cohen said , “ to make him into someone you dislike … rather than make the display case . ”
His appearance , romantic relationships or being the “ bad dress chief executive officer ” have nothing to do with whether he ’s guilty , Cohen say . “ Every movie needs a villain … they publish him in as [ one ] . ”
The public prosecutor emphasized how it was wrong of FTX to habituate customers ’ funds without their knowledge or favorable reception . “ It was a world-wide scene : Customer investment trust belong to client and ca n’t be used , ” Roos said , adding that even FTX ’s terms of service stated that drug user ’ repository belong to substance abuser .
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agree to the evidence , there was a “ huge difference between what FTX state it had for customers versus what it really had ” and how billions of dollar mark were missing , Roos said . “ This is not about complicated crypto [ term ] . It ’s about magic trick . It ’s about lies . It ’s about stealing ; greed . ”
The prosecutor convey up Bankman - Fried ’s testimony , mention how on Friday — when his defense was asking questions — his testimonial “ was fluid , ” but when it came for prosecutors to cross - examine , the defendant ’s “ perfect memory board ” vanish and “ he was a dissimilar someone . ”
Cohen read that Bankman - Fried was “ far from dressed . ” But argue he testified “ because he require to tell [ jurors ] what happened , ” and that any answer he said was take for “ too long ” or “ too myopic ” or he was “ being evasive , ” so “ nothing could satisfy the regime ’s view of him . ”
He emphasized , again , the prosecutors “ portrayed Sam as a scoundrel , a criminal mastermind . ” At that present moment , Bankman - Fried looked at his lawyer and jurors . He proceed to fidget and so did his mother , Barbara Fried , as they both have been throughout the trial .
The pursuance highlighted again that Alameda was just taking the “ borrowed , ” or stolen , customer money for its own expenses and intent , and Bankman - Fried testify that he knew the crypto trading house he founded had secluded advantages and prerogative for “ unlimited amounts of money , without restrictions , ” Roos articulate .
Cohen mocked that the “ perhaps the most villainous act ” was to make “ backdoor codes to slip money . ” But these computer code were n’t surreptitious , he said , and anyone with access to the code al-Qaeda could see them . He also said that some codes were created for “ clerking and accounting use , ” not to “ abuse customers . ”
But during Roos ’ arguments , he said , “ The suspect know what he was doing was wrong . ”
One juryman raise her eyebrows and bite her lip when Roos said this . When Roos pronounce take over from FTX was essentially money for Alameda to steal , another female juror wait at him and nod .
And when FTX collapsed , Roos enunciate , Bankman - Fried double up down on his “ lies ” by making public assertion like “ FTX is fine . Assets are fine . ”
Ex - SDNY public prosecutor says Caroline Ellison , Gary Wang and Nishad Singh probably wo n’t get jail time
Bankman - Fried faces a maximum time of 115 years for seven charges related to sham , money laundering and confederacy . The courtyard will be closed on Friday , so unless a verdict is handed down on Thursday — which seems unlikely gift the latest timeline — we ’ll have to wait until at least next week to see how it pans out .
This storey has been update to admit the defence ’s mop up arguments .
