After a verrrrry long day in court, closing arguments in Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud trial are wrapping up, and the case is expected to be turned over to the jury on Thursday. That means, in theory, a verdict could come as early as tomorrow evening. But with four weeks' worth of testimony and stacks upon stacks of documents to consider...we're not holding our breath.
Allison has been in court for (almost) all of it, and she will be there till the bitter end. Here's what she took from today's closing arguments, which kept jurors (and journalists!) seated a full 90 minutes longer than usual.
'Pyramid of deceit'
US Assistant Attorney Nicholas Roos presented the government's view that Bankman-Fried is guilty of stealing money and engaging his business partners in a cover-up.
Roos described Bankman-Fried's crypto empire as "a pyramid of deceit, built by the defendant on a foundation of lies and false promises — all to get money." Eventually, he said, it collapsed and hurt "countless victims."
The core issue in dispute, Roos said, was whether Bankman-Fried knew that taking the money was wrong, or whether, as the defense contends, it was one of many honest mistakes carried out by a young, very busy startup founder.
"The answer is clear: He took the money, he knew it was wrong, he did it anyway," Roos said. "Because he thought he was smarter… he thought he could talk his way out of it."
Bankman-Fried "came up with a tale that was conveniently put together to exclude himself from the fraud."
The 'good faith' defense
SBF's lead defense lawyer, Mark Cohen, came back with an appeal for jurors to use their common sense.
"The government has sought to turn Sam into some sort of villain, some sort of monster," Cohen said. "It's both wrong and unfair."
In perpetuating the movie-villain narrative, the government fixated on Bankman-Fried's hair, his clothes, testimony about his sex life, photos of him sleeping on a private jet or posing awkwardly with celebrities.
"We'll agree that there was a time when Sam was probably the worst-dressed CEO of all time," Cohen quipped. "But that's not a crime."
Cohen also sought to undermine three of the prosecution's cooperating witnesses, who all testified that SBF was the one ordering the crimes in a yearslong scheme to defraud customers.
He urged jurors to "consider their testimony overall very carefully," in the context of their plea agreements.
As Cohen wrapped up his speech around 6 pm, his voice sounding hoarse, he asked jurors to consider the defense's view as they deliberate.
"Business decisions made in good faith are not grounds to convict," he said. "There was bad judgement. That does not constitute a crime."
Stay tuned: The government gets one more rebuttal before the judge hands the case over to the jury Thursday morning. Then, the verdict waiting game begins.
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