Sam Bankman-Fried denies defrauding FTX users at trial
The jury overseeing the criminal trial of Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried listened to the former FTX CEO’s testimony for the first time, which involved largely denying knowledge of fraudulent activities at the crypto exchange.
According to reports from the New York courtroom on Oct. 27, Bankman-Fried suggested Wang, the former chief technology officer at FTX, had been partly responsible for creating the “allow negative” button for Alameda Research. The feature gave the crypto hedge fund the ability to trade more funds than it had available.
“At the time I wasn’t entirely sure what was happened,” Bankman-Fried reportedly said regarding Alameda’s line of credit. “I thought the funds were being held in a bank account, or sent to FTX in stablecoins. If Alameda was keeping it, I figured it would be reflected as a negative number on FTX.”
This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.
