FTX Co-Founder Takes The Stand: Delivers Multiple Death Blows To Sam Bankman-Fried

On October 5 (Day 3 of the Sam Bankman-Fried “SBF” Trial), the prosecution called some key witnesses to prove that SBF committed fraud. One of the witnesses called was FTX Co-founder and SBF’s associate Gary Wang with the former FTX executive making several revelations about SBF’s wrongdoings. 

What Wang Said About Sam Bankman-Fried On The Stand

According to a thread on the X (formerly Twitter) platform by Inner City Press, which was present at the trial, Wang admitted that he, alongside Caroline Ellison, Nishad Singh, and most importantly, Sam Bankman-Fried, had conspired to commit crimes at FTX. 

Following this admission, the prosecution went on to hammer on the crime of wire fraud and asked how Wang to elaborate on how that happened. He replied that they allowed Alameda Research to withdraw “unlimited funds.” Collaborating with the earlier claims of the prosecution, Wang stated that this was made possible through a code.

In an attempt to lay a foundation for FTX’s hierarchy and how Sam Bankman-Fried was the head of it all, the prosecution led Wang to talk about the stake in the company with him stating that SBF had about 65% ownership in FTX while he had 17%. He further stated that he reported to Sam Bankman-Fried and that he always had the final say in the end.

Wang’s statement also confirms a recent report that there was indeed a backdoor between FTX and Alameda Research which allowed the latter to withdraw customer funds and maintain a negative balance of up to $65 billion. The prosecution had earlier claimed this was one of the two ways SBF siphoned money (up to $10 billion) from FTX.

Wang happens to be the first of three top executives and SBF’s close associates that are expected to take the stand and testify against SBF as part of their plea deal. The other two are Alameda Research’s ex-CEO, Caroline Ellison, and FTX’s Director of Engineering, Nishad Singh. 

How Alameda Research Came About

Besides the revelations about SBF’s illicit activities, Wang also gave an interesting insight into how the name Alameda Research had come about. Many in the crypto community may have, at one point or the other, wondered why a crypto trading firm would be named ‘Alameda Research’ with an emphasis on ‘Research.’

According to Wang, this was also SBF’s idea. ‘Alameda’ came about because the company was in Alameda County, while ‘Research’ was included because Sam Bankman-Fried thought it would be easier to get a bank account with that name. 

That statement laid the foundation for the prosecution to play a recording where Sam Bankman-Fried opposed naming the firm ‘Shit Coin Daytraders Inc.’ and stated that Research was befitting because “no one doesn’t like research.”

SBF’s trial is set to continue on October 6, starting with the defense counsel cross-examining Wang. Noteworthily, the prosecution mentioned at the last hearing that they were running behind time in a trial that was projected to last for about 6 weeks.