Sam Bankman-Fried took the stand in a New York courtroom on Thursday, as he and his defense team auditioned their best legal material for U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan.
Bankman-Fried, the son of two Stanford legal scholars, has pleaded not guilty in the case.
Several of these witnesses have themselves pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including Bankman-Fried's ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who faces a maximum sentence of 110 years for crimes committed while she was the CEO of Alameda.
Given that the core issue will be intent to defraud, SBF should be portraying himself as clueless, inattentive, and in over his head.
But for years he had portrayed himself as a visionary genius, and I don't expect that to change on the stand," he said.
Persons:
Sam Bankman, Fried, District Judge Lewis Kaplan, Fried's, Mark Cohen, Dan Friedberg, SBF, Renato Mariotti, Bryan Cave Leighton, Caroline Ellison
Organizations:
U.S, District, Stanford, U.S . Justice Department's Securities, Commodities, Alameda Research, Prosecutors
Locations:
New York, Manhattan, Chicago, Alameda