Sam Bankman-Fried Needs Better Answers on the Stand

There was a moment on Monday where an assistant U.S. attorney needed to ask FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried if he was the chairman and sole board member of Alameda Research, while showing him a document that he signed, which literally identified him as the chairman and sole board member. And Sam’s response was he did not intend to be, which curiously enough, was not the question actually asked.

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The narrative

Sam Bankman-Fried is still in court trying to defend himself against charges he defrauded and conspired to defraud a bunch of people by stealing FTX customer and investor funds and blowing it on frivolous things like private jet rides and luxury apartments. Monday’s testimony was especially, I would argue, rough for the defendant. And since I’m still spending every day in court watching the greatest show in crypto, I’m going to ditch whatever I was originally planning to write about and instead invite you inside Monday’s performance.

Why it matters

This case is just getting more intriguing, especially now that the defendant himself is testifying.

Breaking it down

You remember those DirecTV Rob Lowe ads? Rob Lowe with DirecTV is a suave dude. Rob Lowe with old-fashioned cable TV is a bit rough to look at. Bankman-Fried’s testimony provides a very similar split-screen moment. He did well enough when responding to questions from Mark Cohen, his defense attorney. He provided a compelling explanation of how FTX collapsed – potentially compelling enough to convince a jury of his peers that he didn’t defraud all the people he allegedly defrauded. He was the DirecTV version of himself.

And then it was Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon’s turn to ask questions. That’s when he, in a big way, became the rough, cable-TV version.

Am I insane? Or was the back-and-forth over whether Bankman-Fried was the sole board member of Alameda insane?

Reader, I invite you to judge for yourself:

Sassoon: “Do you see at the top where it says ‘Alameda Research, Unanimous Consent of Board of Directors, Stock Transfer’?”

Bankman-Fried: “Yep.” [Editor’s note: He kept saying “yep” instead of “yes,” which shouldn’t be a big deal but kind of added to the…