Sam Bankman-Fried Says He Wanted to Impact the World But Surprised by $8 Billion Hole

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by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack

SDNY COURTHOUSE, Oct 27 – For US v Sam Bankman-Fried, after more than a day of jury selection, late morning on October 4 the twelve and six alternate were selected. Inner City Press live tweeted the voir dire here and more below

On October 27, SBF was on the stand all day. Inner City Press live tweeted, including thread

Cohen: Why did you where the shorts and T-shirts? SBF: I found them comfortable. Cohen: Why the long hair? SBF: I was lazy.

 Cohen: Who is in this photo: SBF: Katy Perry, Michael Kives, Kate Hudson and me. We were running a Super Bowl ad. 

Cohen: When had you met Michael Kives? SBF: It was Kives' and I had been wandering the stadium, I ran into them and they invited me in

 Cohen: Did you invest in Kives' K5? SBF: Yes. I thought they had promising incubations. And celebrity contacts. Cohen: Did you want to contribute to candidates? SBF: Yes. In 2020, then more in 2021 and 2022. Cohen: Why? SBF: I thought I could impact the world

 SBF: I was interested in pandemic prevention. So I thought policy was important, Congres and the Executive Branch. Some were by FTX for crypto currency lobbying - some, not most. Cohen: The crypto lobbying was for? SBF: A US regulatory structure

 Cohen: Who else made donations? SBF: Nishad and Ryan Salame? Cohen: Did you discuss them with Mr. Salame [he pronounces it Salaam]? SBF: No. Cohen: Your donations were from? SBF: Loans from Alameda research.

 Cohen: Did you work with political consultants? SBF: Yes. I had a full time job. So I hired them. Cohen: Did you know Michael Sadowsky? SBF: He, of Guarding Against Pandemics. Cohen: What about Congressmembers? SBF: I discussed crypto and other issuesCohen: Did you testify to Congress?

SBF: Late 2021, and early 2022 and one in late Spring early Summer of 2022. The House Financial Services Committee invited me. I declined. They invited more strongly and I accepted. Then Agriculture, about the CFTC.

 SBF: Then Agriculture had a hearing about our application to the CFTC. Our competitors were -- AUSA: Sassoon: Objection. No foundation. Judge Kaplan: Sustained.

Court art courtesy of Elizabeth Williams to Inner City Press

Cohen: New topic. Are you familiar with EcoSerum and SRM? SBF: Yes. I spoke with Nishad about it

 SBF: I spoke with them about if our 2021 revenue was in fact over $1 billion. Cohen: Why was that important? SBF: It's a round number.

 Cohen: Why did FTX use Slack and Signal? SBF: They are conversational.  Cohen: What is encryption? SBF: It's like in World War II... on the Internet, it's about only the sender and receiver seeing the message.  We thought it was good.

AUSA Sassoon: Objection - who is "we"? SBF: I am sorry, I meant me, I often say "we" to not single myself out from other employees. Cohen: What about records retention? SBF: Some had to be kept, some should be not kept, and then those in the middle.

 Cohen: What about these calls? SBF: We had on Dan Friedberg.. and Brett Harrison.

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