by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Oct 4 – For US v Bankman-Fried, after more than a day of jury selection, late morning on October 4 the twelve and six alternate were selected. Inner City Press live tweeted the voir dire here list of 12 on Substack here and all 18 on Patreon here- then the prosecution's opening, thread:
Judge Kaplan: Opening statements are like trailers of a movie. The government will go first. Mr. Rehn?
AUSA Thane Rehn: One year ago, it looked like Sam Bankman Fried was on top of the world. He hung around with Tom Brady and Bill Clinton. AUSA Rehn: He had wealth, he had power, he had influence. But it was built on lies. He was committing a massive fraud, taking billions of dollars from thousands of victims. He had started FTX. He told customers it was safe. But he was taking it and spending it
AUSA Rehn: He spent it on himself, and on political contributions. The customers were left with billions in losses. We are here today to hold his accountable. He started FTX in 2019. It was a website to buy and sell cryptocurrency AUSA Rehn: An exchange is supposed to make money by taking a fee, not by taking the customers' money. You may have heard of Bitcoin. It is one example of crypto. FTX customers deposited funds. How did the defendant convince them to trust him? He went to DC...
AUSA Rehn: The defendant told Congress that FTX did not take customers money... Before FTX, he had started Alameda Research. It made some money, but lost some. He made his on and off girlfriend the CEO. But he was still calling the shots at Alameda
AUSA Rehn: Alameda had secret access to FTX assets. Once Alameda had it, the defendant could spend it as he pleased. How did he do it? Two ways. First, customers sometimes deposits dollars on FTX, the company would tell them it was in their accounts.
AUSA Rehn: But it never made it to FTX. He set up a bank account linked to Alameda. He lied to a bank to set up an Alameda bank account. Then he lied to the customers. He took billions of dollars, the customers had no way to know.
AUSA Rehn: Here's the second way. He took customers' crypto. Accounts that hold crypto are called digital wallets. He gave Alameda the ability to withdraw - he made sure it was written right into the computer code.
AUSA Rehn: You will hear he didn't steal all of the money. He left some money in FTX. More and more customers were coming. You will also hear that FTX had various programs, for example to lend. But defendant took money secretly.
AUSA Rehn: He sold millions of dollars of stock by lying. And he lied to Alameda's lenders, by sending them false documents. You will here how he spent it. He put it into investments to make himself richer. He paid political donations in DC.
AUSA Rehn: He gave stolen money to a non-profit his brother controlled. But then Alameda was losing money. The defendant doubled down. He pulled more customer money out of FTX to pay off Alameda's loans. He directed the creation of false financial statements.
AUSA Rehn: He told Congress, again, that FTX was not using customer money. He tweeted that. He was lying. He only shared this with his closest friends and his girlfriend. He told them the hole was big. But he kept lying, to get more deposits.
AUSA Rehn: In November 2022, Alameda's financial info leaked and was published online. Defendant tweeted, quote, FTX is fine, assets are fine. That was a lie. He told his employees to set their messages to auto-delete. On the inner circle knew the truth.
AUSA Rehn: The hole was too big. So defendant blamed a downturn in the crypto market. But he had committed fraud. That is what the evidence in this trial will show. You will hear from his inner circle. His girlfriend will tell you how they stole money together AUSA Rehn: He bought himself wealth, power and influence. You will see it and you will see there is only one verdict: Sam Bankman-Fried is guilty.
Judge Kaplan: Thank you, Mr. Rehn.
more on Substack here
and all on Patreon here
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