by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Oct 16 – 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 and more below
With Caroline Ellison on the witness stand on Wednesday, October 11 questioning turned to FTX's China bribe. Inner City Press live tweeted thread.
With Nishad Singh on the stand on October 16, talk turned to FTX's stealth funding of politicians, with exhibits. Inner City Press thread
On screen: Keenan Lantz asks "Salams" to get $20K from Singh's bank account to the Delaware Democratic Party.
AUSA Roos: Who is Keenan Lantz?
Singh: He worked for Gabe Bankman-Fried's GAP
AUSA: What's that?
Singh: Guarding Against Pandemics
AUSA: What's this? Singh: Keenan asking to set up a Prime Trust account that Keenan could access.
AUSA: Did Sam Bankman-Fried have the same set up? Singh: Yes, my understanding -
SBF's lawyer: Objection! Judge Kaplan: Sustained. Answer's stricken.
Singh: Then they used my Wells Fargo account. They asked if they could use me to make contributions to many Democratic candidates. I agreed. Judge Kaplan: What is Act Blue?
Singh: A platform to make donations to Democrats. I was supposed to sign a lot of checks
AUSA: Where did these funds come from? Singh: Alameda sent me FTX customers' funds. AUSA: Why were they made in your name? Singh: Optics. End recipients knew they were actually coming from someone else.
On the screen: Michael Sadownsky told Singh, with you being the center left face, you'll be making donations "to a lot of woke sh*t."
AUSA: Was that your understanding? Singh: Yes but without swear words. It seemed to go to LGTBQ Victory Fund but really to others
Singh: I wasn't comfortable. So I sought others who were willing to have their names used. AUSA: How were contributions tracked? Singh: In 2022 Sam wanted us to fill out a form about all donations, so he could make representations about what FTX was supporting.
Now prosecution puts up a spreadsheet, very fast, listing FTX money transfers like Susan Collins $5800 Benjamin Chang $75,000 Alex Padilla Joe Manchin M. Hassan; also Effective Altruism Foundation and Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
AUSA: Mr. Singh, did your cooperation talks and agreement involve this? Singh: Yes. I have pled to defrauding and money laundering and campaign finance violations. SBF's lawyer: Sidebar, please? Judge Kaplan; Yes.
They're back from whispered sidebar Judge Kaplan: This defendant is not charged with campaign finance violations
[Inner City Press: at request of the Bahama$ ]
More on Substack here
Inner City Press live tweeted the voir dire and now, more on Substack here
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