Trial of Bay Area-born Sam Bankman-Fried is going exactly as expected

Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial began in New York just three days ago, and the former crypto mogul is already getting slammed with damaging testimony.

The 31-year-old Bay Area native faces federal charges of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering for his actions atop crypto exchange FTX and hedge fund Alameda Research. The eyes of the cryptocurrency industry and wider business world are on the Manhattan courthouse, where the jury was selected this week. The trial is expected to last over a month. 

Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty. But some of his close confidants and co-executives pleaded guilty, entering plea agreements with the government — and they’ve begun testifying against him.

Gary Wang, the co-founder of the failed crypto exchange, took the stand Thursday, according to the Guardian. The testimony was reportedly plain and to the point: The prosecutor asked Wang if he had committed financial crimes while working at FTX, and he said, “Yes,” the Guardian reported, and explained the crimes included commodities and wire fraud.

Per the Guardian, the exchange continued, with the prosecutor asking, “Who are the main people you committed these crimes with?” Wang reportedly answered, “Sam Bankman-Fried, Nishad Singh and Caroline Ellison.” Both Singh, another former FTX executive, and Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research and occasional girlfriend of Bankman-Fried, have pleaded guilty to criminal charges.

A former FTX software developer, Adam Yedidia, also took the stand Thursday. He emphasized Bankman-Fried’s leadership role at FTX and said that Alameda used FTX customers’ deposits to pay back Alameda’s creditors. “What Alameda did seemed like a flagrantly wrong thing to have done,” Yedidia told the court, according to the Washington Post, adding that he resigned when he learned what was happening.

The crypto founder has a very difficult road ahead. The New York Times, which has extensively covered Bankman-Fried’s rise and fall, wrote the day before the trial began that Bankman-Fried faces an “uphill court battle” and that “he has come to symbolize everything that went wrong with the cryptocurrency industry.”

The collapses of FTX and Alameda Research last November were closely watched and widely reported in real time as billions of dollars melted away. Major celebrities like Tom Brady and the Warriors’ Steph Curry have been caught up in the story thanks to their shilling for FTX, driving even more attention.

The Verge reported Wednesday that Bankman-Fried’s defense attorneys told the judge that he wasn’t getting his entire prescribed Adderall doses in prison. They had previously argued that sparse internet access was interfering with his ability to prepare a sound defense. 

“They’re setting up this theme that they’re not getting due process, they’re not getting a fair trial,” former federal prosecutor Jordan Estes told the Times about the defense’s claims. In other words, Bankman-Fried may just sit and listen to his former friends testify against him — and then hope for better luck in an appeal.

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