Many have been asking, so for the next 30 days, for new yearly subscribers of our substack updates, we will send a copy of the book ‘Crypto Titans: How trillions were made and billions lost in the cryptocurrency markets” to their postal address (no extra shipping and handling fees).

I have provided a 100% factual and detailed account of FTX and Sam Bankman-Friend and Alameda Research in the book ‘Crypto Titans: How trillions were made, and billions were lost in the cryptocurrency markets’. This book is current with all the (unbiased) evidence until July 2023. While I am not a lawyer nor a judge, the defense’s opening statement and the sole blame on Caroline Ellison for NOT hedging is relatively weak.

On page 356 in the book, I write: SBF also informed Ellison, who was then cooperating with the prosecutors, that “many legal cases turn on documentation and it is more difficult to build a legal case if the information is not written down or preserved.”

It appears that “lack of documentation” by using Slack or instructions on auto-deleted Signal are the backbone of the defense.

Opening Statement from the Prosecution:

👇 10) He had wealth, he had power, he had influence. But it was built on lies. He was committing a massive fraud, taking billions of dollars from thousands of victims. He had started FTX. He told customers it was safe. But he was taking it and spending it. The customers were left with billions in losses.

👇 1) We are here today to hold his accountable. Alameda had secret access to FTX assets. Once Alameda had it, the defendant could spend it as he pleased. He lied to a bank to set up an Alameda bank account. Then he lied to the customers. He took billions of dollars, the customers had no way to know.

👇 2) He gave Alameda the ability to withdraw - he made sure it was written right into the computer code. But defendant took money secretly. He sold millions of dollars of stock by lying. And he lied to Alameda's lenders, by sending them false documents. He put it into investments to make himself richer.

👇 3) But then Alameda was losing money. The defendant doubled down. He pulled more customer money out of FTX to pay off Alameda's loans. He directed the creation of false financial statements. He told Congress, again, that FTX was not using customer money. He tweeted that. He was lying.

👇 4) He only shared this with his closest friends and his girlfriend. He told them the hole was big. But he kept lying, to get more deposits. Alameda's financial info leaked and was published online.

👇 5) Defendant tweeted, quote, FTX is fine, assets are fine. That was a lie. He told his employees to set their messages to auto-delete. On the inner circle knew the truth. But he had committed fraud. That is what the evidence in this trial will show. You will hear from his inner circle. His girlfriend will tell you how they stole money together.

Opening Statement from the Defense:

👇 1) Sam didn't defraud anyone. He acted in good faith. There was no theft. Sam believed that loans to Alameda were permitted. Sam worked hard. He was a math nerd who didn't drink or party. Alameda loans were the lenders' business. Then FTX, an exchange, like the NYSE. FTX tried to be innovative. It offered many currencies. Margin loans.

👇 2) Working at a start up is like building a plane while flying it. They had to deal with hacking threats. As FTX grew, it had 300 employees. No CEO could be everywhere. FTX didn't have a risk officer, an issue when the storm hit. FTX sought to raise funds from investors. Nothing wrong with that. FTX had huge potential.

👇 3) Sure it had business relationships with Alameda. These were reasonable. Alameda had an account on FTX. Nothing wrong with that. Alameda took big margin loans from FTX. Nothing wrong with that. Alameda was a market maker. Nothing wrong with that. FTX at first didn't have a bank account to accept dollars, which in the crypto world are called fiat. So they used an Alameda account.

👇 4) At FTX, it was the fiat entry. It was like PayPal or a credit card. But without risk management it was not reconciled. Sam thought it could be lent out. It was reasonable. Given Sam's good faith belief, how could there be a theft? There wasn't. It was not some grand fraudulent scheme.

👇 5) In 2021 he gave up his role as CEO of Alameda. He gave the job to Caroline Ellison and another, then only to her. He stayed involved. But was if the prices went down? Sam spoke to Ms. Ellison and urged her to put on a hedge. She didn't do so. In 2022, from May to November they flew into the perfect storm. Alameda paid the lenders back - so how are they victims of fraud?

👇 6) He didn't create false documents. Sam reasonably believed that Alameda had stopped taking deposits meant for FTX. Ms. Ellison had not put on the hedges. But Sam believed the companies were good. The CEO of Binance put out a tweet attacking Alameda. This triggered a run on the bank at FTX. Sam didn't run. It's not a crime to declare bankruptcy.

👇 7) The US points to business practices. You've heard about the apartments in the Bahamas. Because that's what a bad guy does. They were bought by FTX, to attract the best and brightest. As to TV ads and celebrities, these are taking out of context.

👇 8) Mr Wang & Mr Singh put it in code, for Alameda to be a market maker. The terms of service didn't apply to fiat accounts and the margin loans. This case turns on 3 witnesses: Ms Ellision, Mr Wang and Mr Singh. Each has pleaded guilty. Took them a while to get to that.

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