Sam Bankman-Fried Testifies That He Made ‘Larger Mistakes’ at FTX
Summary
Against the advice of his defense lawyers, Mr. Bankman-Fried embarked on a lengthy press tour to explain the failure of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange, giving interviews to TV anchors and obscure Twitter personalities. The entrepreneur, who positioned himself as the face of the industry when the prices of digital coins like Bitcoin and Ether were surging, emerged last year as a cautionary tale of the unfettered hubris and risk-taking that cost customers billions of dollars when the crypto market crashed. will be subject to extensive impeachment from prosecutors based on the significant public and private statements he has made.” Mr. Bankman-Fried was arrested in December and charged with orchestrating a yearslong scheme to misappropriate as much as $10 billion from customers who deposited their savings in FTX. All he had wanted to do, he said, was “build the best product on the market.” Under questioning from Mr. Cohen, Mr. Bankman-Fried walked the jury through his biography, from his upbringing in Palo Alto, Calif., to his undergraduate education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Asked whether FTX had a risk management department, he said, “We sure should have, but no we did not.” The exchange echoed a core claim in Mr. Cohen’s opening statement: that Mr. Bankman-Fried was effectively building a plane in midair, and acting in “good faith” the whole time.