During cross examination, protection lawyer Mark Cohen regularly tried to emphasize that Alameda’s complete web worth property had been the identical throughout the options, and Ellison saved responding that, sure, however, she stated, the steadiness sheets had been nonetheless deceptive.

Things Sam Is Freaking Out About

According to Ellison’s “things Sam is freaking out about” doc, Bankman-Fried was careworn about “getting regulators to crack down on Binance,” unhealthy PR, elevating cash from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and presumably shopping for Snapchat.

In time, the unhealthy PR (and worse than unhealthy PR) got here true, SBF didn’t elevate cash from Mohammed bin Salman, and he definitely didn’t purchase Snapchat, however regulators have cracked down on Binance.

SBF’s Magic Hair and Loose Morals

Bankman-Fried received a haircut for the trial, which is considerably ironic provided that he allegedly noticed it, Samson-like, because the supply of his powers.

Ellison claimed that he stated that his mop of hair helped him get larger bonuses at buying and selling agency Jane Street and was vital for his picture. Her testimony revealed the extent of Bankman-Fried’s obsession along with his persona. For instance, he and Ellison drove luxurious vehicles within the Bahamas till he allegedly decreed that it was higher for his or her picture to drive a Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic, respectively. He courted the media as properly, each by being straightforward to succeed in and by investing in media organizations akin to Semafor and TheBlock, Ellison stated.

In the media, Bankman-Fried tried to domesticate an aura of being obsessive about morals, particularly with the efficient altruism motion, which focuses on evidence-based methods to enhance the world. His extra excessive ethical beliefs, nonetheless, won’t have handed muster if reported publicly.

According to Ellison, Bankman-Fried stated that he was a utilitarian and, although some utilitarians nonetheless tried to reside by guidelines like “don’t lie” and “don’t steal,” SBF didn’t agree with that. What mattered, and what he cared about most, she claimed he stated, was maximizing the great.

He thought he had a 5 p.c probability of changing into president, Ellison claimed, and can be keen to flip a coin if tails meant the world can be destroyed however heads meant it will be twice nearly as good.

Old Friends Take the Stand

Two longtime buddies of SBF—Adam Yedidia from MIT, and Gary Wang from math camp—testified this week. Yedidia, an FTX coder, claimed that clients who needed to deposit fiat cash (akin to {dollars} or Euros, somewhat than cryptocurrency) on the FTX change truly ended up sending that cash to a checking account managed by, and utilized by, Alameda. Yedidia testified below an settlement that he couldn’t be prosecuted for his testimony.

Wang, who co-founded each FTX and Alameda and served as chief expertise officer, has already pled responsible and flat-out started by saying that he had dedicated monetary crimes with SBF. In explicit, Wang defined that FTX executives wrote code that gave Alameda privileges akin to the power to have a unfavourable steadiness on FTX and the power to borrow a $65 billion—so, primarily limitless—line of credit score.

Random Number Generator

Hardly probably the most consequential revelation, however maybe the funniest: During his testimony, Wang was proven a SBF tweet claiming that FTX had a $100 million insurance coverage fund. This was not true, and in reality the quantity they displayed had little to do with the precise quantity within the fund. The quantity they publicized was calculated by taking the each day buying and selling quantity, multiplying that by a random quantity round 7,500, and dividing it by one billion.