Sam Bankman-Fried will take the stand at his own trial, his authorized counsel has confirmed. The founding father of stricken crypto trade FTX has endured three weeks of bruising testimony in federal courtroom from ex-colleagues, friends, and different witnesses. But Bankman-Fried will now take the chance to relay his personal model of occasions to the jury.

The US authorities has accused Bankman-Fried of masterminding a multibillion-dollar fraud, whereby funds belonging to FTX clients had been swept right into a sibling firm, Alameda Research, and both used to again up dangerous crypto bets or spent on debt repayments, private loans, political donations, and luxuries of varied types. At trial, he’s dealing with seven costs in reference to the alleged fraud.

In deciding whether or not to testify, the stakes for Bankman-Fried are excessive. “The upside,” says Daniel Richman, a professor at Columbia Law School and former federal prosecutor, “is that you really get to have an opportunity to persuasively give your side of the story.” But testifying may also expose Bankman-Fried to variables outdoors his management, together with cross-examination by the prosecution.

The default recommendation to any prison defendant, says Christopher LaVigne, a accomplice at regulation agency Withers, is to not take the stand. In a courtroom setting, irrespective of how properly ready the testimony, it’s “virtually impossible to predict what’s going to happen, particularly in cross-examination.” Bankman-Fried could also be “caught flat-footed,” says LaVigne, by a chunk of proof that undermines his telling of occasions—and if the federal government can exhibit he has lied on the stand, it may be used as ammunition within the last levels of the trial. In the occasion he’s convicted, in the meantime, the decide would keep in mind any perjury in sentencing.

To an extent, nevertheless, Bankman-Fried was left with little alternative however to defy standard knowledge and take the stand. The weight of the proof laid out by cooperating witnesses, every of whom spoke to their very own guilt, means a Hail Mary method is the one possibility the protection has left, says Daniel Silva, a former prosecutor and legal professional at regulation agency Buchalter. “It doesn’t seem like he has any other cards to play. It’s high-risk, and possibly very minimal reward,” says Silva. “It seems like there’s really nothing else for him to do at this point than testify and try to explain it away.”

In direct examination, the protection is prone to ask Bankman-Fried to supply various explanations for the behaviors outlined within the testimony of his former colleagues, and maybe tackle questions round his intentions and mind-set. “He’s going to have to present himself as the most misunderstood man in America,” says Richman.

On the morning of October 26, the prosecution will name its last witness, then relaxation its case. The protection will then name 4 witnesses of its personal, one in every of them Bankman-Fried. But till he takes the stand, there’s at all times the opportunity of an about-turn. Despite having acknowledged his intention to testify, says Rachel Maimin, accomplice at regulation agency Lowenstein Sandler, Bankman-Fried continues to be inside his rights to withdraw, ought to he get chilly toes. The resolution to testify, says Maimin, can “turn on a dime.”