The prosecution in Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud trial on Wednesday showed jurors a slew of profane messages he sent journalists complaining about regulators, challenging the image the FTX founder cultivated as a proponent of cryptocurrency oversight.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan overruled objections by Bankman-Fried's lawyers and allowed the jurors in Manhattan federal court to see a profane message he sent to a reporter for the news website Vox days after FTX collapsed in November 2022 complaining that regulators "make everything worse."
In the message, Bankman-Fried suggested that U.S. lawmakers were "dumb" and "about to hand the industry to Gensler on a silver platter." The SEC is viewed in cryptocurrency circles as more hostile to the industry than another federal agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The former billionaire has pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy. Bankman-Fried, 31, could face decades in prison if convicted.
In arguing for allowing the jury to see the messages, prosecutor Danielle Sassoon said that they were "highly probative" of his true state of mind at the time, noting that Bankman-Fried later told the reporter he thought the conversation had been off the record.
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