On the primary day of Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial, in a darkish mahogany-walled courtroom room on the Southern District of New York, federal district Judge Lewis Kaplan requested the U.S. authorities if it had ever supplied any plea presents to the defendant.
The authorities’s attorneys confirmed they didn’t.
It was a gradual begin to the six-week-long trial. The jury choice course of started Tuesday, and the room was quiet and sober, apart from conversations involving the choose, each events and the possible jurors.
Bankman-Fried shed his ordinary cargo pants and T-shirt for a go well with and tie; his often messy curls appear to have been trimmed a bit, too. He didn’t speak a lot, solely talking out as soon as to say “yes” when Kaplan requested if he understood he had the best to testify if he wished to.
Kaplan stated the trial may seemingly take lower than six weeks. “It rarely takes that long,” however there’s no assure, he added. “There’s a good likelihood” the trial will probably be over by Thanksgiving, although.
The seven prices being introduced in opposition to Bankman-Fried are critical, however Judge Kaplan presided with a extra playful, pleasant and constructive air. He reminded the possible jurors that they shouldn’t analysis or use any digital units to lookup information.
Some potential jurors claimed they heard in regards to the extremely publicized case on the information, podcasts and different media; one claimed her employer, enterprise capital and personal fairness agency Insight Partners, invested in FTX and its sister firm Alameda, illustrating how intently tied this trial might be.
Kaplan anticipates that the 12 jurors and 6 alternates will probably be chosen by finish of the day, if not early Wednesday morning previous to the opening statements from each events.