Sam Bankman-Fried will testify at his criminal fraud trial on Thursday as he faces charges of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering related to his failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
During a conference call on Wednesday, attorney Mark Cohen confirmed Bankman-Fried will take the stand. The move isn’t much of a surprise, considering the time Bankman-Fried spent speaking on his own behalf between the collapse of FTX last year and his eventual arrest last December.
“We’re going to put on three witnesses — then our client,” Cohen said during the call, according to the Inner City Press.
Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, is accused of stealing billions in customer funds and has pleaded not guilty to all charges. So far, the jury has heard the prosecution’s side, with witnesses including his former friends (who also were executives at companies he owned), like Gary Wang, Nishad Singh, and his ex-girlfriend / former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, who said that he directed schemes to misuse FTX customer funds.
He faces a maximum sentence of over 100 years in prison if convicted.