The final stages of jury selection for the fraud trial of FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried resumed on Wednesday in New York City. By early afternoon, the Manhattan federal court was preparing for opening statements, as the California man had previously entered not guilty pleas to seven charges. Prosecutors affim that the FTX founder defrauded countless investors and customers, siphoning off their money for his own interests. However, Bankman-Fried’s defense team contends that his ascent to the crypto world, transforming FTX and its related company, Alameda Research, into multibillion dollar subsidiaries of Widely used cryptocurrencies, occurred without any criminal intent. On day one of the trial, Presiding Judge Lewis A. Kaplan and the legal staff began narrowing down a pool of 45 prospective jurors, down to 12 with 6 alternates, in order to across the up to six week duration of the trial. Before Bankman-Fried’s December Imperial in the Bahamas, allegations of his criminal wrongdoing arose when customers at FLX entreated to mete out their gone deposits, only a year following the FC founder’s USD 250 million in funding of the 2022 Super Bowl’s endorsed advertisements. Thus began Bankman-Fried’s eight month house Reidhill followed by Revocation Mehul judication and eventual lego detention.
