A London-based commodity broker, Marc-Antoine Julliard, has become the first witness to testify against Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) in the much awaited trial in Manhattan Court.
Julliard expressed his views as a FTX trader, citing that he was so attracted to the crypto exchange by its high-profile marketing campaigns. Several celebrity endorsements, media coverage, and premium sponsorships from FTX made him put trust in the company, the trader said.
He remembered that extremely anxious day when FTX didn’t proceed with the withdrawal of $100,000 of crypto and cash from his account. Along with thousands of other FTX customers, Julliard is seeking fund recovery since the exchange filed for bankruptcy.
After the first day of trial, which went quite as the judge was selecting potential jurors to continue with, the second day was sparked by SBF’s defense.
As the witness just recognized the loss of an enormous amount, the defense team of our dear Sam abruptly asserted that using FTX was the “trader’s own choice.”
While calling it a “hindsight case,” defense attorney Mark Cohen said, “Sam didn’t defraud anyone.” Cohen stated that his client cannot be justified in committing fraud just because people lost money.
Cohen projected SBF as a startup founder who didn’t have a Chief Risk Officer to manage the risk arousal, which ultimately led to the collapse of his ventures.
While prosecutors claim that a knowingly implemented bug in FTX code allowed Alameda to borrow capital illicitly, Cohen said that there is nothing secretive about the code and Alameda had special access to funds as it was assigned as a market maker entity for the crypto exchange.
Speaking of code, a developer and Sam’s good mate from college, Adam Yedidia, came to testify as the prosecution’s second witness, as he believes that he may have unwillingly written the code that contributed to this multi-billion dollars of crime.
Yedida said that he resigned from FTX just a day before its bankruptcy filing when he found out that Alameda used funds from FTX customers to pay back creditors. While calling it a day off in the courtroom, Yedida will be questioned further on the third day of trial on Thursday.
Also Read: Twelve Jurors selected for the FTX SBF trial
