FILE PHOTO: Former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces fraud charges over the collapse of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, leaves following a hearing at Manhattan federal court in New York City, U.S. January 3, 2023.
"Even though it doesn't go directly to guilt or innocence, it might create a bad impression," said Jordan Estes, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan who is now a partner at law firm Kramer Levin."It's easier to convict someone that you might not like as much." In his Oct. 4 opening statement to the jury, defense lawyer Mark Cohen said Bankman-Fried"overlooked" risk management while building FTX and Alameda, which declared bankruptcy in November 2022 following a wave of withdrawals by customers. But Cohen said Bankman-Fried did not intend to steal the customers' money.Allowing specific unfavorable accounts by prosecution witnesses to go unchallenged on cross-examination could be a strategic choice by the defense, according to experts.
During opening statements, Cohen told jurors of the prosecutors:"They'd have you think he was quite the villain, or, more precisely, almost a cartoon of a villain. But the evidence will give you a very different context. The evidence will show that Sam was someone who worked very hard to try to build things, not harm them."
Nishad Singh, FTX's former engineering chief, testified last week that when he confronted Bankman-Fried about marketing and venture spending that he found excessive, Bankman-Fried said it was"people like me sowing seeds of doubt in the company's decisions that were the real insidious problem here.