Sam Bankman-Fried trial day 12: A $7 billion hole in FTX’s balance
Concluding the third week of Bankman-Fried’s trial, the former general counsel revealed that FTX had a $7 billion shortage in its customer funds.
The third week of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud trial concludes today with the testimony of Can Sun, former General Counsel at the company. Sun explains details of how Bankman-Fried lied to regulators and investors about the treatment of customer funds, and how more than $7 billion in customer deposits were mishandled by the former CEO.
Here are the key highlights from today’s session:
Testimony of Can Sun, former General Counsel at FTX
- Bankman-Fried promised Sun that customer funds were segregated from the company’s expenditures.
- Sun didn’t approve any customer funds to be loaned to Alameda.
- Sun unknowingly lied to investors and regulators about the relationship between FTX and Alameda, saying that both companies were separate and had no financial link.
- Bankman-Fried took a $360 million loan from Alameda, while Sun also received a $2 million loan from the company.
- Sun learned about a $7 billion hole in FTX’s balance sheet during a call with Apollo Asset Management.
- Bankman-Fried asked Sun to devise a fake justification for mistreating customer funds to share with Apollo.
- Nishad Singh also called Sun to ask him about his exposure to this potential ‘fraud’.
- Can Sun immediately resigned the next day.
The session concluded with a brief testimony of Robert Boroujerdi, a potential investor who was discussing a deal with FTX. Boroujerdi met with Bankman-Fried on a few occasions, where the defendant promised him that Alameda was an independent entity.
