{"id":5864,"date":"2023-11-02T03:36:47","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T03:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/business\/in-closing-arguments-lawyers-spin-a-tale-of-two-very-different-sam-bankman-frieds\/"},"modified":"2023-11-02T03:36:48","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T03:36:48","slug":"in-closing-arguments-lawyers-spin-a-tale-of-two-very-different-sam-bankman-frieds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/connectwithfund.com\/?p=5864","title":{"rendered":"In closing arguments, lawyers spin a tale of two very different Sam Bankman-Frieds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n Attorneys gave their closing arguments Wednesday to the jurors who will decide Sam Bankman-Fried\u2019s fate, offering two diametrically different versions of the collapse of his crypto empire.\n <\/p>\n

\n US Assistant Attorney Nicholas Roos presented the government\u2019s view that Bankman-Fried is guilty of stealing money and engaging his business partners in a cover-up.\n <\/p>\n

\n Roos described the scheme as \u201ca pyramid of deceit, built by the defendant on a foundation of lies and false promises \u2014 all to get money.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Eventually, Roos continued, \u201cit collapsed, leaving countless victims in its wake.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Bankman-Fried\u2019s\u00a0lead defense attorney, Mark Cohen, pushed back on what he described\u00a0as the government\u2019s \u201cwrong and unfair\u201d portrayal of his client as a greedy \u201cmovie villain\u201d who set out to defraud people from the start.\n <\/p>\n

\n The reality, Cohen said, is far less cinematic. Ultimately, he argued, the government has failed to meet its burden of proof that Bankman-Fried masterminded a yearslong conspiracy to defraud customers, investors and the public.\n <\/p>\n

\n The case centers on the collapse of FTX, the crypto exchange founded by Bankman-Fried, that spiraled into bankruptcy a year ago, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers locked out of their accounts and unable to move their money. The fraud, according to the government, was happening behind the scenes, while Bankman-Fried\u2019s\u00a0other firm, Alameda Research, was secretly siphoning money from customer deposits.\n <\/p>\n

\n Roos told jurors that the core issue in dispute in the case was whether Bankman-Fried knew that taking the money was wrong, and not simply an honest mistake carried out by an absentminded startup founder.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe answer is clear: He took the money, he knew it was wrong, he did it anyway,\u201d Roos said. \u201cBecause he thought he was smarter\u2026 he thought he could talk his way out of it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The prosecutor said that when Bankman-Fried took the stand, testifying for three days before the jury, \u201che told you a story, and he lied to you.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Bankman-Fried \u201ccame up with a tale that was conveniently put together to exclude himself from the fraud.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Roos noted that Bankman-Fried was confident and had a \u201cperfect memory\u201d when questioned by his own attorney. But under cross-examination, \u201csuddenly\u2026 he couldn\u2019t remember a single detail about his company. It was uncomfortable to hear.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Taking aim at Bankman-Fried\u2019s defense that his companies had \u201cmessy accounting,\u201d Roos said:\u00a0\u201cI mean, gimme a break \u2014 that was a lie.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Ultimately, Bankman-Fried thought it was OK, and claims he wasn\u2019t aware of many of the actions in question. But \u201cnot a single other witness\u201d has said the same. The government\u2019s witnesses, which included three senior executives in the defendant\u2019s inner circle, saw the commingling of funds as \u201ca bright red line.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Over several hours, Roos sought to illustrate how Bankman-Fried was fraudulently duplicitous for years as he built out his crypto empire.\n <\/p>\n

\n Repeatedly, Bankman-Fried told reporters, customers, investors and lawmakers that customer deposits were safe. While saying publicly that FTX was\u00a0\u201cwholly separate\u201d from Alameda and a \u201cneutral piece of market infrastructure,\u201d Roos said, Bankman-Fried compiled a spreadsheet that showed Alameda\u2019s $65 billion line of credit \u2014 one of several secret, special privileges afforded to Alameda as a customer of FTX.\n <\/p>\n

\n The \u201cpublic lies\u201d show his criminal intent, Roos said.\n <\/p>\n

\n As Roos spoke to the jury, Bankman-Fried kept his eyes trained on his laptop, occasionally typing and scrolling.\n <\/p>\n

\n His parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, greeted their son briefly in the morning before the trial began, but were absent during most of the government\u2019s closing argument.\n <\/p>\n

\n Cohen began his closing statement around 3 pm, directly pushing back on the government\u2019s narrative.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cTime and again, the government has sought to turn Sam into some sort of villain, some sort of monster,\u201d Cohen said. \u201cIt\u2019s both wrong and unfair.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey wrote him into a movie villain\u201d to make jurors overlook the facts, he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Cohen\u00a0even took aim at Roos\u2019 cinematic pointing to the defendant (\u201cthat man\u201d Roos called him) \u2014 a move Cohen said was done \u201cfor the effect.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In perpetuating the movie-villain narrative, the government fixated on Bankman-Fried\u2019s\u00a0hair, his clothes, testimony about his sex life, photos of him sleeping on a private jet or posing awkwardly with celebrities.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019ll agree that there was a time when Sam was probably the worst-dressed CEO of all time,\u201d Cohen quipped. \u201cBut that\u2019s not a crime.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The government\u2019s case is based on a \u201cfalse premise\u201d that FTX and Alameda were fraudulent from the start, Cohen told jurors.\u00a0To hear the government tell it, four people got together and set out to start a criminal enterprise, he said. But the evidence shows those people were friends who believed in the business they were building \u2014 companies that \u201cwere legit, valid, innovative businesses.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIn the real world \u2014 unlike the movie world \u2014 things can\u00a0get messy,\u201d Cohen said. People \u201cmake mistakes that later on they wish they could have fixed.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Cohen underscored Bankman-Fried\u2019s own admission that FTX lacked \u201ca significantly built-out risk management system,\u201d and didn\u2019t have a chief risk officer.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cPoor risk management is not a crime,\u201d Cohen said.\n <\/p>\n

\n If Bankman-Fried were such a criminal mastermind, Cohen asked the jurors, \u201cwhy would he go before Congress and subject himself to public questioning? Answer: He wouldn\u2019t.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Over three hours, Cohen sought to undermine the government\u2019s key witnesses: Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang and Nishad Singh, who were all close friends and executives in Bankman-Fried\u2019s inner circle. They also rode the rise of FTX and Alameda to create personal fortunes.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThese were extremely wealthy people\u201d who could have, at any time between 2020 and 2022, when the alleged crimes were happening, taken their money and run. They could have cashed out, notified authorities, hired lawyers. But none of them did, Cohen said. Because in the moment, \u201cthey don\u2019t think they\u2019re doing anything wrong.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But once the collapse of FTX began in November 2022, \u201cthey did what they had to do,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Cohen told jurors that those witnesses \u201cwon\u2019t get their deal\u201d \u2014 a lighter sentence in exchange for their testimony \u2014 if they say \u201cSam was our friend\u201d or that he was doing his best to save the company.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou should consider their testimony overall very carefully,\u201d Cohen said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Closing arguments ran well past the usual 4:30 pm adjournment, as Judge Lewis Kaplan seemed eager to give the case to the jury Thursday morning.\n <\/p>\n

\n As Cohen wrapped up his speech around 6 pm, his voice sounding hoarse, he asked jurors to consider the defense\u2019s view as they deliberate.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cBusiness decisions made in good faith are not grounds to convict,\u201d he said. \u201cThere was bad judgement. That does not constitute a crime.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Bankman-Fried\u2019s mother, Barbara Fried, was visibly shaking while listening to lead defense attorney Mark Cohen deliver his closing arguments.\n <\/p>\n

\n His parents entered the room only when Cohen began closing arguments, opting to leave the courtroom when Roos detailed the alleged crimes for over three hours.\n <\/p>\n

\n They entered the courtroom in the morning said hi to their son and embraced him quickly, leaving before the government began.\n <\/p>\n

\n During defense closings, Fried seated in the second row of the galley, intensely watched her son.\n <\/p>\n

\n She was visibly shaking and rocking her body back and forth in her seat at times, her hands either clasped together, fingers intertwined, or pushing her sleeves up her wrist, and crossing her arms. Her mouth and jaw quivered at many moments during Cohens delivery.\n <\/p>\n

\n Bankman-Fried\u2019s parents approached him during a break after lunch, his father giving him a smile, and a thumbs up .\n <\/p>\n

\n At the end of the day, Bankman-Fried appeared to be crying as Cohen delivered his final thoughts.\n <\/p>\n

\n At the end of the day after closings, his parents embraced defense attorneys and said \u201cthank you\u2026thank you.\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attorneys gave their closing arguments Wednesday to the jurors who will decide Sam Bankman-Fried\u2019s fate, offering two diametrically different versions of the collapse of his crypto empire. US Assistant Attorney Nicholas Roos presented the government\u2019s view that Bankman-Fried is guilty of stealing money and engaging his business partners in a cover-up. Roos described the scheme as \u201ca pyramid of deceit, built by the defendant on a foundation of lies and false promises \u2014 all to get money.\u201d Eventually, Roos continued, \u201cit collapsed, leaving countless victims in its wake.\u201d Bankman-Fried\u2019s\u00a0lead defense attorney, Mark Cohen, pushed back on what he described\u00a0as the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\nIn closing arguments, lawyers spin a tale of two very different Sam Bankman-Frieds | ConnectWithFund<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Attorneys gave their closing arguments Wednesday to the jurors who will decide Sam Bankman-Fried\u2019s fate, offering two diametrically different 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