NEW YORK -The jury at Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud trial on Monday saw a photograph of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder with singer Katy Perry and actor Orlando Bloom at the 2022 NFL Super Bowl, as prosecutors sought to bolster their case that he squandered customer money on efforts to boost his stature.
Prosecutors displayed the image as Nishad Singh, FTX’s former director of engineering, testified about how the company spent hundreds of millions of dollars on celebrity partnerships and marketing in early 2022, months before the exchange declared bankruptcy amid a wave of customer withdrawals.
“It didn’t align with what I thought we were building the company for,” said Singh, adding that he was “embarrassed and ashamed” at deals he said “reeked of excess and flashiness.”
Singh, like Bankman-Fried, has said he adheres to a movement known as effective altruism, which encourages talented young people to pursue lucrative careers and give away most of their wealth to philanthropic causes.
He pleaded guilty in February to wire fraud and conspiring to violate U.S. campaign finance laws and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried looted billions of dollars from FTX customers to prop up his hedge fund, Alameda Research, buy real estate, and donate more than $100 million to U.S. political campaigns to try to promote crypto-friendly legislation.
Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy tied to FTX’s November 2022 collapse. He has argued that while he made mistakes running FTX, he did not steal funds.
The photograph, which Perry posted to her Instagram account, showed Bankman-Fried at the stadium in Los Angeles wearing a blue T-shirt with a football that said “FTX.”
Also in the photo was Michael Kives, who ran an investment firm called K5 that Bankman-Fried proposed using as a “one-stop shop” to gain access to influential people, according to a document he wrote that prosecutors displayed. Singh testified that he worried partnering with K5 would be “toxic” to FTX’s culture.
K5 did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a June statement after it was sued by FTX’s current management seeking to claw back $700 million the firm received from FTX entities, K5 said it was “under the impression” that Bankman-Fried was “completely legitimate.”
Prosecutors showed a spreadsheet from March 2023 detailing $1.1 billion in FTX endorsement deals, which included the naming rights to the Miami Heat’s basketball arena, as well as arrangements with NFL quarterback Tom Brady, model Gisele Bundchen, basketball star Steph Curry and comedian Larry David.
Singh said another FTX executive had told him the deals were meant to help spur user growth.
Singh is the third former member of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle to testify at the trial, which started on Oct. 3. Jurors have already heard from Gary Wang, FTX’s former technology chief, and Caroline Ellison, Alameda’s onetime chief executive officer and Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend.
BANKMAN-FRIED NEEDS MORE ADDERALL, LAWYERS SAY
In a letter to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan late on Sunday, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said he needs a higher dose of Adderall in jail each morning to treat his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder so that he can focus at trial and decide whether to testify in his own defense.
Since his trial, Bankman-Fried has been seen during testimony typing on a laptop and whispering to his lawyers.
Prosecutors have said they may rest their case as soon as Oct. 26. Defendants in U.S. criminal cases have no obligation to present evidence, and taking the stand carries the risk of being subjected to probing cross-examination by prosecutors.
But Bankman-Fried has defied the conventional playbook for white-collar defendants of remaining largely silent. He published blog posts a month after his Dec. 12, 2022, arrest, and shared Ellison’s private writings with a New York Times reporter.
Kaplan said that likely amounted to witness-tampering, and on Aug. 11 remanded him to Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons, which runs MDC, said in a statement on Monday that inmates have access to Adderall “when clinically indicated.”
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New YorkEditing by Nick Zieminski and Matthew Lewis)
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