Sam Bankman-Fried's lawyer says FTX investments were not 'reckless'
NEW YORK: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's lawyer on Tuesday (Oct 17) said the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange's investments were not "reckless and frivolous", pushing back against testimony by former executive Nishad Singh portraying its spending on marketing and celebrity endorsements as excessive.Singh, FTX's former engineering chief, testified for a second straight day at Bankman-Fried's fraud trial in Manhattan federal court.Under cross-examination, Singh told the jury that he thought FTX would be able to stay in business upon learning in September 2022 of a US$13 billion shortfall in customer funds, potentially bolstering Bankman-Fried's argument that he believed the exchange's troubles were manageable.FTX declared bankruptcy on Nov 11, 2022.Singh testified on Monday that the company's venture investments and US$1.1 billion in planned marketing deals, including naming rights to the arena where the NBA's Miami Heat play and featuring NFL quarterback Tom Brady in commercials, "reeked of excess and flashiness".Defence lawyer Mark Cohen on Tuesday asked Singh, one of three former members of Bankman-Fried's inner circle who have pleaded guilty to fraud and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, whether promoting FTX's brand could be useful."I understood it had business benefits and costs," Singh said in testimony that defence lawyers could use to argue that Bankman-Fried was making what he believed to be good-faith business decisions in shelling out funds for marketing and investments even if others disagreed.Bankman-Fried is in the third week of his trial on charges involving the looting of billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to make investments, donate to US political campaigns and prop up his hedge fund, Alameda Research.
He has pleaded not guilty.Singh testified on Monday that he worried a deal the company had with an investment firm called K5, which Bankman-Fried described as a "one-stop shop" for brokering relationships with celebrities, would prove
