Prosecutors in Bankman-Fried trial compare defense argument to ‘Dumb and Dumber’
Former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces fraud charges over the collapse of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, walks outside the Manhattan federal court in New York City, U.S. March 30, 2023.
Amanda Perobelli | Reuters
Prosecutors in the criminal trial against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried compared one of the defense’s arguments to a scene in the 1994 film “Dumb and Dumber,” in which actor Jim Carrey says IOUs are “as good as money.”
In a written brief on Thursday to Judge Lewis Kaplan, who’s presiding over the Manhattan trial, assistant U.S. attorneys for the Southern District of New York took issue with several of the jury instructions provided by the defense team.
One specific directive reminded prosecutors of the 29-year-old comedy about two less-than-intelligent friends (played by Carrey and Jeff Daniels) who take a cross-country trip to Colorado to return a briefcase full of money to its owner, though the cash had actually been left as ransom.
“If you find that FTX customers, after depositing funds with FTX, received a credit to transact on the FTX exchange and therefore received the right to withdraw an equivalent amount of funds at a later time upon request, that is insufficient to establish that they were deprived of property,” the jury instruction from the defense says.
Much of the government’s case hinges on billions of dollars that FTX, Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange, siphoned out of customer accounts and used largely to try and cover up losses at sister hedge fund Alameda Research after cryptocurrency prices plunged. Funds also allegedly went to paying for things like a $35 million property in the Bahamas and political donations.
Customers were ultimately unable to retrieve much of their money as FTX and Alameda were simultaneously imploding.
The defense, according to prosecutors, is trying to make the claim to the jury that clients still had a credit to the funds they deposited even if the money wasn’t there because it was being used for other things. Prosecutors say the argument is “untethered to the facts of the case” and that a “credit to obtain funds at a later date, if such funds are ultimately available, is clearly not the same, or as valuable, as the money or property itself.”
In a footnote, the prosecution writes, “A popular movie from the 1990s illustrates the point: a briefcase, once filled with money, is not the same as a briefcase later filled with IOUs.” In “Dumb and Dumber,” when the briefcase reaches its owner, it’s filled with paper.
“That’s as good as money, sir,” says Carrey, playing the character Lloyd Christmas.
Actor Jim Carrey
Filippo Monteforte | AFP | Getty Images
Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried’s lead defense attorney, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bankman-Fried, 31, faces seven criminal fraud charges tied to the collapse of his crypto empire late last year. Bankman-Fried, who has pleaded not guilty, could face life in prison if convicted.
The first three weeks of the trial have been highlighted by testimony from Bankman-Fried’s former close friends, who were also top execs at FTX and Alameda and have since turned on him, some through plea deals with the government. The trial is scheduled to resume late next week and extend into November.
On numerous occasions, Judge Kaplan has called sidebar meetings with the lead government attorneys and Bankman-Fried’s lawyers, to discuss their demeanor in the courtroom. Most recently, on Thursday, Kaplan ripped into lawyers from both sides, in particular telling the prosecution that their latest expert witnesses knew nothing specific about important details and yet called Bankman-Fried’s behavior criminal. Both sides were warned to do better and to communicate more with each other.
— CNBC’s Kate Rooney and Dawn Giel contributed to this report
WATCH: Prosecution in Sam Bankman-Fried trial wrapping up in coming days
A Waymo rider-only robotaxi is seen during a test ride in San Francisco, California, U.S., December 9, 2022.
Paresh Dave | Reuters
Alphabet’s Waymo unit plans on bringing its robotaxi service to Dallas next year, adding to a growing list of prospective U.S. markets for 2026, including Miami and Washington, D.C.
Rental car company Avis Budget Group will be managing the Waymo fleet in Dallas, via a new partnership the companies announced Monday.
Avis CEO Brian Choi said in a statement that the agreement marks a “milestone” for the company, which is now also working to become “a leading provider of fleet management, infrastructure and operations to the broader mobility ecosystem.”
Waymo robotaxi testing is already underway in downtown Dallas involving the company’s Jaguar I-PACE electric vehicles with the Waymo Driver system. That combines automated driving software, sensors and other hardware that power the vehicles’ “level 4,” driverless operations.
Passengers will be able to hail a driverless ride using the Waymo app in Dallas. In some other markets, Waymo only makes its services available through ride-hailing platform Uber.
Waymo has surged ahead in the robotaxi market while other autonomous vehicle developers, including Tesla, Amazon-owned Zoox, and venture-backed startups such as Nuro, May Mobility and Wayve, are working to make autonomous transportation a commercial reality in the U.S.
Waymo says it conducts more than 250,000 paid weekly trips in the markets where it operates commercially, including Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco.
Waymo’s steepest competition internationally comes from Baidu’s robotaxi venture Apollo Go in China, which is eyeing expansion in Europe.
On Alphabet’s second-quarter earnings call, execs boasted that, “The Waymo Driver has now autonomously driven over 100 million miles on public roads, and the team is testing across more than 10 cities this year, including New York and Philadelphia.”
The business has become significant enough that Alphabet even added a category to its Other Bets revenue description in its latest quarterly filing.
“Revenues from Other Bets are generated primarily from the sale of autonomous transportation services, healthcare-related services and internet services,” the filing said.
The Other Bets segment remains relatively small, however, with revenue coming in at $373 million in the quarter, up from $365 million a year ago. The division still reported a loss of $1.25 billion, widening from $1.13 billion in the second quarter of 2024.
WATCH: Waymo co-CEO on 10 million driverless rides and Tesla’s coming robtaxi challenge
Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses on display in the window of a Ray Ban store in London, UK, on Friday, July 19, 2024.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Revenue from sales of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses more than tripled year over year, EssilorLuxottica revealed Monday as part of the company’s most recent earnings report.
EssilorLuxottica said the success of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, built via a partnership with the Facebook parent stemming back to 2019, contributed to its first-half overall sales of 14.02 billion euro (US$16.25 billion), which represents a 7.3% year-over-year jump.
“We are leading the transformation of glasses as the next computing platform, one where AI, sensory tech and a data-rich healthcare infrastructure will converge to empower humans and unlock our full potential,” EssilorLuxottica CEO Francesco Milleri and deputy CEO Paul du Saillant said in a joint-statement. “The success of Ray-Ban Meta, the launch of Oakley Meta Performance AI glasses and the positive response to Nuance Audio are major milestones for us in this new frontier.”
In the earnings report, the company said that its new Oakley Meta smart glasses, unveiled in June, represents the latest product line to come from its partnership with the social media company. CNBC reported in June that Meta and Luxottica plan to debut a Prada-branded version of its smart glasses in the future.
Luxottica owns several well-known brands including Ray-Ban, Oakley, Vogue Eyewear and Persol.
In September, Meta renewed a long-term partnership agreement with Luxottica to “collaborate into the next decade to develop multi-generational smart eyewear products,” according to the announcement.
WATCH: Meta’s ambitious AI plans.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike