Hanging over the U.S. v. Samuel Bankman-Fried case has been the question of whether the defendant would try to talk his way out of seven criminal charges and, potentially, more than 100 years in prison. His defense team has mostly played coy on strategy — it hasn’t even been clear that they’d mount a defense at all. But during a surprise teleconference held by the court on Wednesday, Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, Mark S. Cohen, told Judge Lewis Kaplan, “We’re going to put on potentially three witnesses, and our client is also going to be testifying.” That means SBF could take the stand as early as Thursday.
To paraphrase SBF’s dad’s favorite comedian, this is a prettayyy, prettayyy risky move. Elizabeth Holmes, the fraudster CEO of Theranos, tried it. It didn’t work out so well for her; she’s now serving more than 11 years in prison.
The defense’s decision comes after they expressed concerns in a filing about statements from two prosecution witnesses, former executives Nishad Singh and Gary Wang, about the so-called back door that allowed FTX’s customer funds to be used by Alameda Research, SBF’s hedge fund. SBF may be planning to testify that the back door was installed for legitimate trading purposes — essentially, allowing Alameda to trade with other users on the exchange — rather than anything nefarious.
The defense’s other three possible witnesses are a regulator and two technical experts. They will likely be overshadowed by SBF, whose testimony will likely span more than a single day. The defense’s strategy also signals that this trial could be over as early as next week. As things stand, it looks like they need a miracle; it’s far from clear that SBF’s testimony will count as one.
