- Sam Bankman-Fried will take the stand in his criminal trial, his lawyer said.
- The FTX cofounder is facing seven charges of fraud and a potentially hefty prison sentence.
- Experts say his testimony could be a wild card.
Sam Bankman-Fried plans to take the witness stand to testify in his own defense in the criminal fraud trial over FTX’s collapse, according to his attorney Mark Cohen.
In a hearing in federal court in downtown Manhattan Wednesday, Cohen said he would call three witnesses in Bankman-Fried’s defense case, and then Bankman-Fried himself would testify.
The trial has been on hiatus since last week and is scheduled to resume on Thursday. Prosecutors said they would bring two more witnesses before resting, turning things over to Bankman-Fried’s lawyers to make their defense case.
Earlier in the trial, Bankman-Fried’s attorneys appeared to go back and forth on whether the FTX cofounder would take the stand. In a letter to the judge on October 15, Cohen said his client needs to receive more Adderall in order to concentrate in court.
“As we approach the defense case and the critical decision of whether Mr. Bankman-Fried will testify, the defense has a growing concern that because of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s lack of access to Adderall he has not been able to concentrate at the level he ordinarily would and that he will not be able to meaningfully participate in the presentation of the defense case,” Cohen wrote.
In a later letter, Cohen said arrangements were made for Bankman-Fried to get the adderrall he needed.
The FTX cofounder is facing seven criminal charges, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He has pleaded not guilty on all counts to the charges and has argued that the executives who took over FTX after it went bankrupt misunderstood his intentions. He has also attempted to lay the blame for FTX’s demise on former executives, including his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison.
Prosecutors have argued that Bankman-Fried defrauded FTX customers and investors out of billions of dollars. During a days-long testimony, Ellison testified that she conspired with Bankman-Fried and other members of his inner circle to defraud customers and investors of FTX, his cryptocurrency exchange.
“Alameda took several billion dollars from FTX customers and used it to make our own investments and pay off lenders who we owed,” Ellison testified.
Eric Chaffee, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University, told Insider that it’s an “aggressive choice” for the defense to bring Bankman-Fried onto the stand.
“While criminal defendants often want to tell their stories, testifying opens them up to the scrutiny that comes with cross-examination,” he said. “The facts that might be brought forward could be more damaging to his case than anything that he might be able to present on the stand. “
As prosecutors were wrapping up their case against Bankman-Fried in court, Cohen signaled to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan that they were weighing whether to put a defense case at all. Ahead of the trial, Kaplan rejected the proposed expert witnesses Cohen wanted to present in Bankman-Fried’s defense.
That left Bankman-Fried a narrow path to acquittal, where his lawyers had little court testimony to hang their arguments on.
Prosecutors had for weeks been hammering away at Bankman-Fried’s credibility. They repeatedly brought up his tweets at around the time of FTX’s collapse, when he falsely claimed the company had enough money to cover customer withdrawals. They also had Ellison testify about Bankman-Fried’s image as a harried genius with unkempt hair and slovenly clothing, which she said was part of a public relations playbook.
Bankan-Fried’s testimony will also pose extreme risks for him. Prosecutors had plenty of earlier interviews to use against him in cross-examination. And if Kaplan found that he lied on the witness stand, he could impose a greater sentence.
Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota and former White House chief ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, said Bankman-Fried is likely to be an unwieldy witness, even for his own lawyers.
“I can’t think of many defendants who could do more damage to themselves on the stand,” Painter said.
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