On the second day of the SBF lawsuit, the judge selected the final jury and heard opening statements from both the prosecution and the defense.

jury selection

According to Bloomberg, Lewis Kaplan spent a day and a half selecting the 12 jurors and six alternates who will decide the ultimate fate of SBF. Reports indicate that the jury includes nine women and three men. One of the men, a 68-year-old man, had retired and earned an MBA from Stanford University, where SBF's parents were both law professors. Others hold multiple degrees from top universities like New York University and Syracuse University.

Prosecution opening statement

The U.S. Department of Justice stated in its opening statement that his entire cryptocurrency empire was a "house of cards" built on lies with the goal of stealing billions of dollars from thousands of victims. Prosecutor Nathan Rehn told the jury that the government will provide sufficient evidence and experts to prove that SBF, once known as the king of cryptocurrency, had lied to his users and used customer funds to purchase luxury items, Power and influence.

Nathan Rehn described SBF as someone who misappropriated large amounts of other people's money for investments and squandered the money on himself. Nathan Rehn further pointed out that although FTX’s terms of service stated that it would keep their funds for customers, SBF actually transferred these funds to another company called Alameda Research and then used the money to buy luxury goods for themselves and their relatives and friends. Taste. Among other things, the SBF used the money to make political donations and try to make friends in the political world.

Nathan Rehn revealed that SBF withdrew more than $10 billion from FTX to pay the debts of another of its companies, Alameda Research, in 2022, and tried to cover up this behavior by creating false financial reports, deleting internal information, and forging contracts . The lie was finally exposed when Alameda's financial reports were made public online.

Defense statement

SBF's defense lawyer Mark Cohen stated in court that SBF had good intentions from beginning to end and never intended to steal customers' funds. It was just overwhelmed by the rapid growth of its business. He worked 20 hours a day and basically There is no time to steal user funds.

In addition, Mark Cohen also blamed some of the problems on SBF's ex-girlfriend and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison. Mark Cohen said that when FTX began to grow rapidly, SBF hired more employees, including his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, and trusted her to run the exchange the rest of the time. But when Caroline Ellison left the company last summer, he failed to put safeguards in place, causing funds to be withdrawn by other employees.

Additionally, during the cryptocurrency market crash, SBF also advised Caroline Ellison, then CEO of Alameda Research, to prepare for these crashes through hedging, but he did not do so, ultimately leaving Alameda unable to repay its debt. (Caroline Ellison has admitted her guilt and will testify at the trial.)

Mark Cohen also took issue with prosecutors citing the CoinDesk report in their presentation, saying the report was inaccurate and saying the government should present evidence during the trial rather than rely on the report. Finally, Mark Cohen asked jurors to consider the evidence together and said that when the jury hears the testimony of SBF's ex-girlfriend and other witnesses, they will understand that SBF is innocent.

The trial is expected to last several weeks and the outcome remains to be seen.

This article “SBF Lawsuit”: Prosecutors accuse SBF’s empire of being a ‘house of cards’, SBF puts blame on ex-girlfriend appeared first on Zombit.