Crypto Creeps: In Bankman-Fried Trial Singh Sings of Political Mendicants from Susan Collins to Joe Manchin

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by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack

LITERARY SDNY, Oct 16 -- Sixteenth day of October and the SBF trial was back, with cooperator Nishad Singh on the stand. And oh boy did he sing.

He called what Sam had done "evil," and ended the day saying it had made him suicidal. (AUSA Nicholas Roos stretched out the direct examination so this was among the last images or phrases that the jury left with).  

 But beyond the spreadsheet of payola to Steph Curry and Larry David, Tom and Gisele the politics finally came in, at least some of them. SBF had been bought of of the campaign finance law violations by the Bahamas, to which DOJ deferred as on the China bribe.

   But Singh had pleaded guilty to campaign finance, before the Bahamas played its or Bankman-Fried's card.

So he was testifying about his role: letting Ryan Salame use his bank accounts, at Prime Trust and West Fargo, to funnel money to Super PACs with LGTBQ in their name, and individual politicians like Susan Collins and Joe Manchin, and a guy called Benjamin Chang.

There were more, but the exhibit was only briefly flashed on the screen in the courtroom and the exhibits not immediately available.  

  SBF's lawyer Mark Cohen was left, once the jury, asking for an adjournment of the trial until Sam could get midday Adderall.

AUSA Sassoon shot back that Sam's prescribing doctor had over-prescribed Addy (as it was being derisively called online by some). Would DOJ now go after the doctor? Would it go after the center and left politicians who had taken the FTX customers' money, apparently knowingly?

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