NEW YORK — Splashy ads including football star Tom Brady and comic Larry David were amongst the veryfirst proof seen by jurors Wednesday as districtattorneys introduced a historical scams case versus cryptocurrency maven Sam Bankman-Fried, portraying him as a badguy who depicted himself as the Robin Hood of the crypto world.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Rehn stated in his opening declaration in Manhattan federal court that it was just a year ago that Bankman-Fried appeared to be “on top of the world,” operating the multibillion dollar business he established, FTX, a apparently pioneering cryptocurrency trading platform.
Rehn stated the 31-year-old lived in a $30 million apartmentorcondo in the Bahamas, jetted around the world on personal airplanes, mingled with celebs and invested billions of dollars as he shownoff power and made huge political contributions to gain impact in Washington over cryptocurrency guideline.
The districtattorney, though, stated that the kid of 2 Stanford law teachers was not as he appeared.
“Sam Bankman-Fried was dedicating a enormous scams by taking billions of dollars from thousands of victims,” Rehn stated. When his organizations were collapsing, he backdated files and attempted to cover up his criminaloffenses by erasing messages and purchasing workers to immediately erase all messages every month, the districtattorney stated.
Adam Yedidia, one of the trial’s veryfirst witnesses, supported the federalgovernment’s declares when he affirmed that he satisfied Bankman-Fried and they endedupbeing “longtime pals” when they were both trainees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology priorto they worked and lived together in the Bahamas.
Yedidia stated he stop FTX and stopped talking to Bankman-Fried when he foundout in early November of last year that Bankman-Fried had utilized FTX client deposits to pay back lenders of Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s crypto hedge fund.
On the stand, Yedidia validated he was affirming under an resistance order that will avoid him from being prosecuted as long as he affirms honestly. He