Sam Bankman-Fried testifies he spent the customers money because he was "concerned" for the customers

As Sam Bankman-Fried takes the stand in his trial, the never-ending lies just seem never to end. In his media rounds before criminal charges were filed against him he claimed he was just dumb and did not know any better, so how could he be responsible? And now we have the new and improved? version. Let us take a look.

Sam Bankman-Fried takes the stand

During his testimony earlier today, Bankman-Fried said the following when asked about spending $8 billion of the customers' money. “I thought it was folded into risk management, ... As CEO of Alameda, I was concerned with their portfolio. At FTX, I was paying attention but not as much as I should have been.“. In other words, he did it because he is so nice, showing concern over his customers' holding. And apparently, he thought it was a ok to do so, as it seemed like it was just part of normal risk management.

The narrative has shifted quite substantially from the days after the crash when he flat-out denied that there even was any co-mingling of funds and that FTX would never spend the customers' money. And now we a return to the "nice everyday billionaire" persona. He suddenly stopped denying he spent the money and co-mingled the funds, and now instead he did it because he is such a nice guy and really cares about the customers. It just looks like he is doubling down and most likely just keeps on lying hoping that if he just keeps on trying new lies he will eventually stumble on the one that people will believe.

Sadly it seems to be working on some, most recently the book that was published about Sam Bankman-Fried. That all but seemed to hail him as the best thing since sliced bread. Coffeezilla did an excellent look into it in one of his recent videos. If you missed it it is just below this.

But Bankman-Fried was also questioned about his ties to the Bahamian government. Like how he provided the Primeminister with floor seats to the Miami Heat Arena. Something Bankman-Fried apparently has no recollection of. Allegedly he was also in talks with helping to pay off the Bahamian debt, something he also denies. But he did remember helping Prime Minister, Philip Davis's son get a job. Then there is also the whole situation where FTX announced that all their Bahamian customers were to be made whole and would prioritize their withdrawals. And they were the only ones who could withdraw, even if only for a short period.

Seems like just normal everyday risk management to me there too. Not at all any back-scratching going on, I see nothing that could be construed in any other way than "business as usual". I mean if the Bahamas is not the place where everything is above board, then I do not know what place is. I mean their general attorney even turned a press briefing into a commercial about how good the Bahamas is for crying out loud. That was actually pretty funny to watch. If your google fu is not up to par, you can find a link to it in one of my previous FTX posts.

I would love to hear what you think the outcome of Bankman-Fried´s trial will be, will they throw the book at him, or "did he do nothing wrong" and be set free? Or perhaps something in between. Please let me know in the comment section below.

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Picture provided by: Fair Use