Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos painted a dire picture in front of the jury when he described the collapse of FTX and the role of its CEO and founder, Sam Bankman-Fried. Not only did he knowingly misappropriate customers’ money, but he also lied about it under oath, the prosecutor told the jury on Wednesday.
The first such occasion Roos identified was when FTX bought back its own shares from Binance in 2021. Bankman-Fried was well aware that Alameda did not have enough money for the deal and would have to borrow from FTX but greenlighted it anyway, Roos said. A similar approach was applied the same year to venture investments in Genesis Digital Assets, Anthropic, K5 and others.
"He took the customers’ money, he knew it was wrong. But he thought he was smart, that he could make it back," the prosecutor said, adding to the jury: "And it ends with you today." Bankman-Fried’s argument that he didn’t know how bad things were at Alameda and FTX right before the crash is also false, Roos said. "I mean, give me a break, this is a lie!"Rather than rebut each and every one of the prosecution's assertions, Bankman-Fried's lead attorney Mark Cohen, after thanking the jury for their time, attention, and service, chose instead to attack the heart of the government's narrative.
Cohen argued that the government's story of a willful conspiracy fell flat in certain circumstances. For instance, the infamous $65 billion line of credit for Alameda, as well as its unique ability to have a negative balance on FTX without getting liquidated, were created "in response to business issues" and aimed "to help customers, not hurt them," Cohen said.