Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has reportedly decided to testify in court after his colleagues took the witness stand to provide evidence.
In a long thread on the social media platform X, Inner City Press reports that Bankman-Fried’s lawyer has stated that his client will testify after the three defense witnesses to refute statements made by FTX employees.
Earlier in the trial, former Alameda Research CEO and Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, told the court that Bankman-Fried instructed her to commit fraud.
Alameda took in about $14 billion in FTC customer funds led by Bankman-Fried between 2020 and 2022, according to Ellison. She also noted that Alameda has manipulated its balance sheets to make the company appear less risky to lenders.
Days before, FTX co-founder Gary Wang testified against Bankman-Fried, saying what the crypto exchange listed as an “insurance fund” was actually a fake account.
According to Wang, the fund did not have the amount of backstop funds it claimed to have, such as $5.5 million in cash and 5 million FTT (FTX token). Wang notes that FTX constructed the USD amount in the account using a formula that included a random number generator.
In a recent interview on the This Week in Startups podcast, Inner City Press reporter Mathew Russell Lee says Ellison’s testimony was particularly damning for Bankman-Fried.
“I think Ellison was a very strong witness because… she [described] how it worked and she pled guilty – admitting she knew Alameda had an incredible $65 billion line of credit with FTX [and] that when people thought they were sending money to trade on the FTX platform, it was diverted to Alameda, but she says very much, “Sam told me to do this.”
Bankman-Fried is currently on trial for mishandling billions of dollars in customer funds and defrauding investors. If convicted, he faces decades behind bars.
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