More than a dozen witnesses have taken the stand to testify against Sam Bankman-Fried over the past three weeks. One by one, they have built on each others’ testimony, painting to the jury a picture of a crypto executive who lied to lenders and investors, doctored balance sheets and spent billions in FTX customer funds on extravagant real estate, risky investments and the repayment of loans. Here’s what we have learned from some of those witnesses:
Caroline Ellison, former chief executive of Alameda: Ellison told the jury she and Bankman-Fried knew for months about Alameda’s increasingly precarious financial situation and fretted over how, and whether, they could keep the operation from melting down. She said that Bankman-Fried approved use of customer funds and endorsed risky bets.
Nishad Singh, former head of engineering for FTX: Singh testified that FTX made political donations in employee names using stolen customer funds.
Gary Wang, former chief technology officer for FTX: Wang testified that back in July 2019, Bankman-Fried told him to change FTX’s code so that Alameda Research, the trading firm Bankman-Fried ran at the time, could have a negative balance. This meant that Alameda could borrow money from FTX to the point that it owed the crypto exchange money. Wang also said that Alameda separately had a line of credit that it could tap for up to $65 billion.
