Just days before Sam Bankman-Fried landed in a Brooklyn prison for breaking his bail agreement, he agreed to answer questions from the Coinage community. It would become his last interview before he was admitted to Metropolitan Detention Center. Surprisingly, he provided about 50 pages of documents outlining his defense strategy. In this exclusive series, we explore exactly what SBF says led to FTX downfall, and discuss SBF’s exclusive defense strategy with experts, including the former prosecutor who took down Bernie Madoff.
In Episode 1, we take a closer look at SBF’s right-hand woman: Caroline Ellison. One of three FTX executives who have pleaded guilty, along with Gary Wang and Nishad Singh, Caroline Ellison was CEO of Alameda Research, SBF’s bespoke trading firm that operated on FTX.
Caroline admits that she committed crimes during her time as the head of Alameda. SBF said he was unaware — and says it’s precisely because he was unaware of just how badly Caroline was running Alameda that its collapse took down FTX. But does that defense stand a chance at trial?
“It’s tough for an MIT graduate who comes off as kind of a master of the universe type to argue that he’s an idiot,” says Marc Litt.
You can read and watch Coinage’s full reporting on SBF’s legal defense at Coinage.Media. Watch our full trial coverage at https://www.coinage.media/sbf-trial
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