The First Day of the SBF Trial Was Like Crypto Prom
Reading Time: 4 minutesA preview of the media circus to come—and clues about who will testify against Sam Bankman-Fried., Sam Bankman-Fried Trial: Here’s what happened during jury selection on the first day.
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‘I’ve never seen the courthouse like this.’
So muttered an experienced member of the press just before 8 a.m. on Tuesday as we stood outside the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse, where the trial of fallen crypto titan Sam Bankman-Fried was set to begin. There were many, many others also waiting their turn, most of them potential jurors. There were also far more would-be spectators than one usually sees at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, not just paid participants in the media spectacle (hi) but a hodgepodge of crypto influencers, obsessives, skeptics, and more. One of the first people I encountered was Mark Botnick, the friendly consultant who’s served as a frequent spokesperson for Bankman-Fried.
As some other writers remarked, the SBF trial felt like the first day of school. While waiting to access the media overflow room, I spotted practically anyone and everyone who’s had something to say about decentralized currency over the last few years. There was Zeke Faux, the Bloomberg investigative reporter and SBF interviewer who’d recently published his first book, Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall; there was Tiffany Fong, the YouTuber and crypto-fraud exposer who’d earned SBF’s ear; there was Laura Shin, the pioneering crypto journalist and founder of the Unchained media network. (And hey! There was MediaDownloader contributor and Ben McKenzie collaborator Jacob Silverman.)
Tuesday’s business was jury selection. The video-monitor quality was spotty where I was seated, but I can tell you that Bankman-Fried, surrounded by his sizable legal team, sat in the courtroom in an ill-fitting suit whose sleeves were just too short and sported a notably short-clipped haircut—a look that drastically differed from the shaggy appearance he made iconic.
Judge Lewis B. Kaplan called the affair to order. The prosecution noted that the government never made a plea offer to SBF and had never even discussed any plea possibility; SBF lawyer Mark Cohen responded that was correct. The judge inquired whether the defense would utilize PowerPoint presentations in its opening arguments; the lawyers confirmed it would. All the while, SBF sat totally still, occasionally clacking away at the laptop in front of him. When the various lawyers in the room stood up to confer with one another, SBF remained seated, alone, gazing over a messy stack of papers to his right.
Once potential jurors arrived, Kaplan read out the charges against SBF in a thick Brooklyn accent and noted that the trial was expected to take about six weeks, though he also predicted it would take a much shorter time. Speaking to about 50 people in the back of the courtroom (and more to come later), Kaplan laid out the rules: ‘You are to do no research. You are not to read press coverage,’ he told the crowd—so much for DYOR. ‘Of course, it will not surprise me if some of you have heard of this case,’ Kaplan continued. ‘Sam Bankman-Fried made FTX.com for trading digital coins, like stocks on an exchange.’ He went into the history of the Alameda Research crypto hedge fund, as well as the investors in both companies who’d been allegedly defrauded by the defendant. For how serious Kaplan sounded in such moments, he certainly lightened up when it came to actually questioning the crowd. One potential juror mentioned that they took blood thinners, to which the judge responded, ‘Welcome to the club.’ Other members of the jury pool related fascinating experiences, including: 1) a guy whose primary knowledge of the SBF shenanigans came from listening to The Joe Rogan Experience; 2) an employee at Insight Partners, who said her company invested in both Alameda and FTX and lost money as a result [Update, Oct. 3, 2023, at 11:15 p.m.: In a statement to MediaDownloader, a PR representative for Insight clarified that the company ‘has never held a position in Alameda’]; 3) and one concerned citizen who wondered whether the government would present its case against SBF without evidence. Kaplan responded, ‘That’s not how this works.’
As selection progressed, Kaplan went deeper with his questions, asking whether anyone had caught this week’s 60 Minutes segment—the one where famed author Michael Lewis, who just published a new book about his time shadowing SBF, described his latest work as a ‘letter to the jury.’ All the while, Bankman-Fried himself was quite attentive, gazing keenly at each participant and typing away so intensely at his laptop that some among the media-overflow crew joked that he must be gaming again.
At one point, an assistant U.S. attorney read out a list of people who might, just might, be involved in this trial as witnesses for the prosecution.* It had some highly anticipated names: Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, Nishad Singh, Ryne Miller, Ryan Salame, Constance Wang, Joe Bankman, Barbara Fried, and even … Anthony Scaramucci. Then there were the institutions that might be brought up at various points: Jane Street Capital, Sequoia Capital, BlockFi, Genesis, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Binance, Nexo, Guarding Against Pandemics (the nonprofit of SBF’s brother), Voyager. Did the jurors have any particular opinions on these names that would prevent them from being impartial? Did they have any thoughts about San Bankman-Fried, the government, and the cryptocurrency industry that could have the same effect?
At the end of the day, around 4:30 p.m., Kaplan had not succeeded in finalizing the jury, but the number of people in the room was certainly smaller, and he predicted the task would be complete Wednesday morning. Afterward, he mentioned, there would be opening statements—at least 35 minutes from the defense, about 30 minutes from the prosecution—and the appearance of the first few witnesses. As I departed the courthouse and turned on my phone, I saw the news of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster from his leadership position. What a week, huh?
Reference: https://slate.com/technology/2023/10/sbf-trial-jury-selection.html
Ref: slate
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