Sam Bankman-Fried’s Desperate Last Stand

As the proceedings of Sam Bankman-Fried has unfolded the past mates of weeks, 1 question has lingered heavy successful the air. Would helium testify?

Today, SBF’s defence squad revealed that the fallen crypto king would so beryllium taking the stand. It could hap arsenic aboriginal arsenic Thursday, arsenic the prosecution broadside hands implicit to the defence to marque its case.

This is an excerpt from The Node newsletter, a regular roundup of the astir pivotal crypto quality connected CoinDesk and beyond. You tin subscribe to get the full newsletter here.

SBF has faced a barrage of incriminating grounds astatine the national courthouse successful Lower Manhattan. Once adjacent and intimate colleagues, including Caroline Ellison, Nishad Singh and Gary Wang, each present moving with the government, person lined up to accidental SBF knowingly defrauded investors, lenders and customers to the tune of billions of dollars. Legal observers hold that the lawsuit has been going highly severely for SBF and that the defence has mostly failed to deed its stride frankincense far.

“I haven't seen a genius level of defence that you would expect to spot with idiosyncratic who has money,” Joseph Tully, a salient transgression defence attorney, told a CoinDesk Twitter Spaces event astir the proceedings past week. “I deliberation what this lawsuit needs is simply a thoroughfare combatant and I don't deliberation SBF is getting that. And that's disappointing to me."

Such was the defense’s mediocre showing successful questioning witnesses that the justice adjacent seemed to beryllium mocking SBF’s lawyers astatine times. “There were immoderate moments wherever the justice seemed to astir beryllium making amusive of the defence lawyer," Josh Klayman, a integer assets lawyer with Linklaters, told the aforesaid Spaces panel. "There were moments of levity and yet they were levity astatine the expense, successful my view, of the defence counsel."

Klayman and Tully some thought SBF would instrumentality the basal this week – for 2 reasons.

One, SBF has agelong had assurance successful his persuasive capabilities. Following FTX’s illness past November, SBF back-channeled with galore reporters to archer his broadside of story, often downplaying his cognition of what was happening and – successful a preview of his existent defence – making retired that helium was much out-of-his-depth than malevolent and calculating. He adjacent started his ain Substack, going against the proposal of galore lawyers who cautioned against self-incrimination. And two: He has thing to suffer astatine this point. SBF is precise apt to beryllium convicted connected astatine slightest immoderate of the aggregate counts of fraud helium faces, and he’s precise apt to spell to prison. His champion accidental of a reduced sentence, the reasoning goes, is to marque a lawsuit that helium ne'er intended to defraud.

That’s key, due to the fact that the prosecution needs to beryllium not lone that investors and customers were defrauded, but that SBF knowingly and deliberately did so.

But testifying successful your ain defence is highly risky, Tully said. SBF whitethorn beryllium forced to accidental things helium doesn’t privation to accidental and to beryllium pressed connected questions and details helium hadn’t expected to beryllium pressed on. Moreover, successful SBF’s case, helium has to tread a good enactment betwixt coming crossed arsenic a “credible witness” and playing the “out-of-his-depth” neophyte that his defence strategy rests on.

"It's a double-edged sword. The much they enactment him connected the basal and the much articulate and organized helium is, it cuts against their defence that he's a mathematics nerd and fundamentally the 'SBF is an idiot’ defense," Tully told CoinDesk past week.

As theater, the spectacle of SBF testifying volition beryllium unmissable. We’ll yet spot the antheral himself, unfiltered and unmediated by his enablers. We’ll spot a quality being who erstwhile had truthful overmuch reduced to explaining the good item of his failings. We’ll spot a antheral who was a leader of entrepreneurial daring laid bare.

In galore ways, it seems lone fitting. SBF roseate connected the backmost of his ain myth-making abilities. Now his destiny rests connected his capableness to archer a story, and play a role, that mightiness assistance trim his jailhouse time. But it volition beryllium pugnacious to ticker arsenic well. SBF volition inhabit a spot cipher ever wants to be, and helium volition beryllium alone, without the filter of others to clasp his manus and marque him look good.

It’s a hopeless gamble and yet, apparently, the lone existent play SBF has left. If helium wants to reshape the communicative of the case, helium has nary prime but to spell bat for himself and anticipation for the best.