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NEW YORK: Onto the prosecution The Sam Bankman-Fried fraud trial On Wednesday, jurors showed a slew of profane messages he sent journalists complaining about regulators, challenging the image the FTX founder cultivated as a proponent of cryptocurrency oversight.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan overruled Bankman-Fried’s lawyers and showed jurors in Manhattan federal court a profane message he sent to a reporter from the news website Vox days after the FTX collapsed in November 2022, in which he complained that regulators “make everything worse. “
Jurors also saw a profanity-laced message that Bankman-Fried sent a journalist from crypto news site The Block on Twitter, the social media platform now called X, that referenced U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler.
In the message, Bankman-Fried suggested that US lawmakers were “stupid” and “about to hand the industry to Gensler on a silver platter.” The SEC is seen in cryptocurrency circles as more hostile to the industry than another federal agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
In the trial, which began on October 3, Bankman-Fried is accused of plundering billions of dollars of FTX client funds to make investments, donate to US political campaigns and support his hedge fund, Alameda Research. Prosecutors have said his political donations were intended to promote legislation favorable to cryptocurrency.
The former billionaire has pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy. Bankman-Fried, 31, could face decades in prison if convicted.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyers had tried to block prosecutors from introducing the messages with the Vox reporter into evidence, arguing that the defendant’s “off-the-cuff musings” followed the allegations raised in the trial his period and that the language would influence the party. jury against him.
In arguing for allowing the jury to see the messages, prosecutor Danielle Sassoon said they were “highly evidential” of his true state of mind at the time, noting that Bankman-Fried later told the reporter said he thought the conversation was not public. .
Vox eventually published the messages.
Bankman-Fried wrote that his previous statements in favor of regulating cryptocurrency were “just PR,” which means public relations.
“It does not reflect his honest intentions at the time he had contact with regulators,” attorney Christian Everdell said outside the jury’s presence, opposing allowing the messages into evidence.
Prosecutors have said they can rest their case as of October 26. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers have said he is considering testifying in his own defense.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan overruled Bankman-Fried’s lawyers and showed jurors in Manhattan federal court a profane message he sent to a reporter from the news website Vox days after the FTX collapsed in November 2022, in which he complained that regulators “make everything worse. “
Jurors also saw a profanity-laced message that Bankman-Fried sent a journalist from crypto news site The Block on Twitter, the social media platform now called X, that referenced U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler.
In the message, Bankman-Fried suggested that US lawmakers were “stupid” and “about to hand the industry to Gensler on a silver platter.” The SEC is seen in cryptocurrency circles as more hostile to the industry than another federal agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
In the trial, which began on October 3, Bankman-Fried is accused of plundering billions of dollars of FTX client funds to make investments, donate to US political campaigns and support his hedge fund, Alameda Research. Prosecutors have said his political donations were intended to promote legislation favorable to cryptocurrency.
The former billionaire has pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy. Bankman-Fried, 31, could face decades in prison if convicted.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyers had tried to block prosecutors from introducing the messages with the Vox reporter into evidence, arguing that the defendant’s “off-the-cuff musings” followed the allegations raised in the trial his period and that the language would influence the party. jury against him.
In arguing for allowing the jury to see the messages, prosecutor Danielle Sassoon said they were “highly evidential” of his true state of mind at the time, noting that Bankman-Fried later told the reporter said he thought the conversation was not public. .
Vox eventually published the messages.
Bankman-Fried wrote that his previous statements in favor of regulating cryptocurrency were “just PR,” which means public relations.
“It does not reflect his honest intentions at the time he had contact with regulators,” attorney Christian Everdell said outside the jury’s presence, opposing allowing the messages into evidence.
Prosecutors have said they can rest their case as of October 26. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers have said he is considering testifying in his own defense.
