Bankman-Fried Trial to Feature Customer, Investor, and Co-Conspirator Testimony
In a letter to the judge published Saturday, prosecutors laid out plans to call customers, investors, and co-conspirators to testify in next week’s trial of
Sam Bankman-Fried. The former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX faces charges of
fraud and conspiracy for allegedly misusing customer funds.
Prosecutors say customer testimony will show that users deposited funds on FTX expecting the
company would keep the assets safe and separate from its own funds. “The testimony of actual investors regarding their expectations for how FTX would operate as a ‘custodian’ for its customers, as the defendant represented, is directly relevant to how a reasonable investor would have viewed those representations when made about a cryptocurrency exchange,” the letter states.
Finally, cooperating witnesses like
Singh, Ellison, Wang, and Salame who pleaded guilty to conspiring with
Bankman-Fried will explain their understanding of his instructions and statements. Prosecutors argue in the letter that this reveals how the scheme operated. The high-profile trial is slated to begin
next Tuesday in New York federal court. Bankman-Fried faces
up to 115 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
