Former friend testifies against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried at fraud trial

The fraud trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried began Wednesday with a prosecutor telling jurors that the former businessman was on top of the world a year ago, before his historic fraud was exposed, leaving customers and investors without at least $10 billion US they thought was secure.Defence lawyer says founder of cryptocurrency company founder didn't steal from anyoneFTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried leaves a federal court on July 26. His fraud trial got underway today in New York.

Rehn said the 31-year-old lived in a $30 million US apartment in the Bahamas, jetted around the world on private planes, socialized with celebrities and spent billions of dollars as he flaunted power and made big political donations to gain influence in Washington over cryptocurrency regulation."Sam Bankman-Fried was committing a massive fraud by taking billions of dollars from thousands of victims," Rehn said.

Bankman-Fried became a target of investigators when FTX collapsed last November amid a rush of customers seeking to recover their deposits, less than a year after Bankman-Fried spent millions of dollars on the 2022 Super Bowl with celebrity advertisements promoting FTX as the "safest and easiest way to buy and sell crypto."

In this courtroom sketch, Bankman-Fried sits at the defence table, while Judge Lewis Kaplan and lawyers discuss final jury selection in his trial. Defence lawyers insist their client had no criminal intent as he became famous in the crypto world while growing FTX and Alameda Research into multibillion-dollar heavyweights in the cryptocurrency industry.

Cohen said Bankman-Fried's actions in the final days as head of his companies prove that he believed he was managing a liquidity crisis caused by cryptocurrency values that collapsed by over 70 per cent and criticism from one of his biggest competitors that caused a run on his companies by customers seeking to recover their deposits.

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Sam Bankman-Fried trial: What charges does he face over FTX’s collapse?Sam Bankman-Fried is set to go on trial on Tuesday on fraud and conspiracy charges related to the collapse of FTX, the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange he founded and led.
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