{"id":168511,"date":"2023-10-05T05:47:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T00:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/?p=168511"},"modified":"2023-10-05T05:47:48","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T00:17:48","slug":"opening-arguments-begin-in-sam-bankman-fried-trial-crypto-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/opening-arguments-begin-in-sam-bankman-fried-trial-crypto-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening arguments begin in Sam Bankman-Fried trial &#8211; Crypto News"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-v-3d3be88a=\"\">\n<p>Prosecutors and defense attorneys in the criminal case of former FTX CEO <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/top-people-in-crypto-and-blockchain-2023\/sam-bankman-fried-and-caroline-ellison\">Sam Bankman-Fried<\/a>, also known as SBF, painted a very different picture for the jury to consider during the trial.<\/p>\n<p>In a New York courtroom on Oct. 4, Assistant United States Attorney Thane Rehn and SBF\u2019s attorney Mark Cohen delivered opening arguments to a jury of 12 people on the events leading up to the collapse of crypto exchange FTX as well as Bankman-Fried\u2019s alleged role. The remarks followed Judge Lewis Kaplan finalizing a selection of 12 members of the jury and six alternates after more than a day of questioning roughly 50 people.<\/p>\n<p>According to an X (formerly Twitter) thread from Inner City Press at the event, Rehn <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/innercitypress\/status\/1709614458983628982\">claimed<\/a> in court that SBF used FTX customer funds to enrich himself as well as convince lawmakers \u2014 through campaign donations and testimony \u2014 that he was trustworthy. The assistant U.S. attorney reportedly argued that Bankman-Fried repeatedly lied to users, employees, lawmakers and the general public regarding \u201cthe hole\u201d FTX found itself in during November 2022 when financial information on the exchange was released.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe hole was too big,\u201d said Rehn. \u201cSo the defendant blamed a downturn in the crypto market. But he had committed fraud. That is what the evidence in this trial will show. You will hear from his inner circle. His girlfriend will tell you how they stole money together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Cointelegraph reporter Ana Paula Pereira is also in attendance and will give daily updates on the most significant developments throughout the trial. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mNu588v2fB\">pic.twitter.com\/mNu588v2fB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Cointelegraph\/status\/1709565282698604608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 4, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Cohen, who delivered his opening statement after Rehn, reportedly blamed some of the issues leading to FTX\u2019s downfall on SBF\u2019s former girlfriend and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison as well as Binance CEO <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/top-people-in-crypto-and-blockchain-2023\/changpeng-zhao\">Changpeng Zhao<\/a>, or CZ. He claimed Ellison had failed to act to hedge some of Alameda\u2019s investments despite Bankman-Fried\u2019s urging to do so and that CZ\u2019s social media posts had directly led to a run on FTX.<\/p>\n<p>SBF\u2019s defense team presented the former FTX CEO as someone who \u201cacted in good faith\u201d amid a company growing exponentially in a volatile crypto market. He also pushed back against the narrative SBF was a \u201cbad guy\u201d by spending funds, with a penthouse in the Bahamas and paying celebrities to endorse FTX, saying: \u201cIt\u2019s not a crime to try to get Tom Brady.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlameda took big margin loans from FTX,\u201d said Cohen, according to reports. \u201cNothing wrong with that. Alameda was a market maker. Nothing wrong with that. FTX at first didn\u2019t have a bank account to accept dollars, which in the crypto world are called fiat. So, they used an Alameda account.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Related: <\/em><\/strong><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/highlights-ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-first-day-trial\" data-amp=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph-com.cdn.ampproject.org\/c\/s\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/highlights-ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-first-day-trial\/amp\"><strong><em>5 highlights of Sam Bankman-Fried\u2019s first day of trial<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Oct. 4 marked the second day of Bankman-Fried\u2019s first criminal trial, which is expected to last roughly six weeks. He has pleaded not guilty to seven charges related to alleged fraud at FTX and will appear in court again in March 2024 for a second trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Among the highlights of SBF\u2019s first week in court included the former FTX CEO appearing with a new haircut for the first time. Ellison, along with other former executives connected to the crypto exchange, may <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/ftx-execs-witnesses-sam-bankman-fried-criminal-trial\" data-amp=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph-com.cdn.ampproject.org\/c\/s\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/ftx-execs-witnesses-sam-bankman-fried-criminal-trial\/amp\">testify against SBF<\/a> as the trial continues. <\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Magazine: <\/em><\/strong><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/can-you-trust-crypto-exchanges-after-the-collapse-of-ftx\/\"><strong><em>Can you trust crypto exchanges after the collapse of FTX?<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prosecutors and defense attorneys in the criminal case of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, painted a very different picture for the jury to consider during the trial. In a New York courtroom on Oct. 4, Assistant United States Attorney Thane Rehn and SBF\u2019s attorney Mark Cohen delivered opening arguments to a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[235,203,210,234,231,232,237,238,236,233],"class_list":["post-168511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blockchain","tag-bitcoin","tag-crypto-currency","tag-elon-musk","tag-ethereum","tag-hyperledger","tag-ibm","tag-mining","tag-nodes","tag-spacex","tag-tesla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168511"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168516,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168511\/revisions\/168516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}