Bankman-Fried Testifies: ‘No, I Did Not’ Defraud FTX Customers

“The defense calls Sam Bankman-Fried.”

The words hung in the air inside the hushed federal courtroom. Every eye fixed on the defendant – his once unruly hair shorn, an off-the-rack gray suit hanging from his thinned frame.

Sam Bankman-Fried rose to his feet shortly before 10 o’clock and raised his right hand. Then, in the same boyish voice that won over the crypto world, the man known as SBF began to speak.

“Did you defraud anyone?” his lawyer, Mark Cohen asked.

“No, I did not,” Bankman-Fried answered.

“Did you take customer funds?” Cohen clarified. “No,” he said.

Sam Bankman-Fried testifies in New York on Oct. 27.

Photographer: Elizabeth Williams/AP

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