Sam Bankman-Fried trial: Jury selection begins in crypto king case

Jury selection began Tuesday in the high-profile criminal case of crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried, whose FTX digital coin exchange and promises of easy money with little risk lured in thousands of inexperienced investors who prosecutors claim were cheated out of their life savings by a 31-year-old bent on leading a flashy lifestyle.  

Prosecutors allege Bankman-Fried illegally moved investor money for his personal use, at times gobbling up pricey real estate deals as well as making massive contributions to lawmakers and PACs as part of a nefarious plan to influence government regulation of cryptocurrency that had largely operated in the gray areas of the law.

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He is also accused of making risky trades at Alameda Research, his cryptocurrency hedge fund, and is guilty of masterminding one of the biggest frauds in American history, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said.

Bankman-Fried disputes the allegations. While he has acknowledged in interviews that major mistakes were made, he has tried to shift the blame on other executives who he claimed didn’t do their jobs and manage the risk properly.  

“I didn’t steal funds, and I certainly didn’t stash billions away,” he said in a post this year on Substack.

Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to seven charges, including wire fraud, money laundering, and multiple conspiracy counts in what has been described as the largest corporate collapse in decades. If he’s found guilty, he could be facing a lengthy prison sentence.

(Seth Wenig/AP)

Some of the other high-profile companies, tethered to the industry and Bankman-Fried, have nosedived into bankruptcy.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan will select 12 jurors, plus alternates. He said the trial is expected to wrap up before Thanksgiving.

Bankman-Fried was once celebrated as the world’s crypto king. He partied with playboys, lived in a penthouse in the Bahamas, and got A-list stars such as Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Steph Curry, and Larry David to back his failed FTX digital currency exchange.

At its peak, FTX was valued at $32 billion, backed by elite venture capital firms, and had the naming rights to the Miami Heat’s basketball stadium.

The moppy-haired billionaire was also a regular fixture in the halls of Congress and bankrolled plenty of political campaigns. He gave more than $70 million to campaigns and PACs in less than 18 months, putting him among the country’s top political donors. For the 2022 midterm elections, he shelled out $40 million of his own money to help elect mostly Democratic candidates, making him the party’s second-highest donor, behind billionaire George Soros. A few Republican lawmakers were also thrown into the mix.

But the days of hobnobbing are over.

Bankman-Fried was initially placed on house arrest while waiting for his trial to begin but had his $250 million bail revoked on Aug. 11 after he was accused of trying to influence witnesses slated to testify against him. Prosecutors also argued that Bankman-Fried tried to give documents related to the case to New York Times reporters. He was brought back into custody and has been locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

He has complained that he is not getting the vegan dishes he wants behind bars and has had to live off bread, water, and peanut butter.

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Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn said she didn’t think the prison, one of the most notorious in New York, had a vegan option but would look into it.

His lawyers have also argued that he could not prepare for trial without proper access to computers at the detention center as well as medication to help him focus and a better-balanced meal.