SBF’s prosecutors emphasize the case will not be about crypto: ‘It’s about lies. It’s about stealing; greed.’

Sam Bankman-Fried has been on trial on expenses of fraud and cash laundering for simply over 4 weeks, and the case appears to be like prefer it’s lastly drawing to a detailed. The prosecution started its closing statements on Wednesday.

Assistant U.S. lawyer Nicolas Roos stood in entrance of jurors from 10 a.m. ET till the court docket broke for lunch round 1 p.m. reiterating the prosecution’s case: Bankman-Fried lied, made false guarantees and is accountable for billions of {dollars} misplaced for 1000’s of traders on FTX. And on high of that, that Bankman-Fried had many alternatives to come back clear, however didn’t.

At one particularly dramatic second, Roos pointed on the defendant and stated, “Who’s accountable? This man: Samuel Bankman-Fried.” The previous CEO of FTX didn’t look again, however he tilted his head barely.

The prosecutor emphasised the way it was mistaken of FTX to make use of clients’ funds with out their information or approval. “It was a common view: Buyer funds belong to clients and might’t be used,” Roos stated, including that even FTX’s phrases of service acknowledged that customers’ deposits belonged to customers.

In accordance with the proof, there was a “big distinction between what FTX stated it had for purchasers versus what it truly had” and the way billions of {dollars} have been lacking, Roos stated. “This isn’t about difficult crypto [terms]. It’s about deception. It’s about lies. It’s about stealing; greed.”