The defense in Sam Bankman-Fried’s federal fraud trial rested its case Tuesday after calling three witnesses, including the FTX founder.
Bankman-Fried faced three days of tough pushback by Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, who spent much of her time attacking his credibility by using his own words against him and highlighting public statements he made leading up to and after the collapse of his multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency exchange.
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Bankman-Fried told jurors that even though he co-founded FTX, he wasn’t focused on the day-to-day duties and pushed blame onto other executives.
He denied knowing that billions of dollars had been misused until just a few months before the company’s collapse last November.
When asked if he had explicitly told his employees not to spend FTX customer money on investments, real estate deals, and endorsement deals, Bankman-Fried fumbled his answer. He also came up short when asked to name an employee who might have authorized the FTX fun …