FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried tells jury that he didn’t commit fraud or take customer funds
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
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried told jurors in his criminal trial on Friday that he didn’t commit fraud at his crypto exchange, which collapsed late last year.
Bankman-Fried addressed the New York courtroom a day after U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan sent jurors home early to consider whether some aspects of the defendant’s planned testimony, related to legal advice he got while running FTX, would be admissible in court.
On Friday morning, defense attorney Mark Cohen asked Bankman-Fried if he defrauded anyone.
“No, I did not,” Bankman-Fried responded.
Cohen followed by asking if he took customer funds, to which Bankman-Fried said “no.”
Bankman-Fried, 31, faces seven criminal counts, including wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering, that could land him in prison for life if he’s convicted. Bankman-Fried, the son of two Stanford legal scholars, has pleaded not guilty in the case.
Prior to the defendant’s appearance on the stand, the four-week trial was highlighted by the testimony of multiple members of FTX’s top leadership team as well as the people who ran sister hedge fund Alameda Research. They all singled out Bankman-Fried as the mastermind of a scheme to use FTX customer money to fund everything from venture investments and a high-priced condo in the Bahamas to covering Alameda’s crypto losses.
Courtroom sketch showing Sam Bankman Fried questioned by his attorney Mark Cohen. Judge Lewis Kaplan on the bench
Artist: Elizabeth Williams
Prosecutors walked former leaders of Bankman-Fried’s businesses through specific actions taken by their boss that resulted in clients losing billions of dollars last year. Several of the witnesses, including Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who ran Alameda, have pleaded guilty to multiple charges and are cooperating with the government.
The judge’s decision to send the jury home on Thursday allowed Bankman-Fried and his defense team to audition their best legal material for Judge Kaplan.
‘Significant oversights’
On Friday, Bankman-Fried acknowledged that one of his biggest mistakes was not having a risk management team or chief regulatory officer. That led to “significant oversights,” he said.
Cohen walked Bankman-Fried through his background and how he got into crypto. The defendant said he studied physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated in 2014. He then worked as a trader on the international desk at Jane Street for over three years, managing tens of billions of dollars a day in trading. That’s where he learned the fundamentals of things like arbitrage trading.
In the fall of 2017, Bankman-Fried founded Alameda Research.
“This was when crypto was starting to become publicly visible for the first time,” Bankman-Fried testified.
He said people were excited about it, watching bitcoin, which had jumped from $1,000 to $10,000 in a two-month period. Banks and brokers weren’t involved yet and it seemed like there would probably be big demand for an arbitrage provider, he said.
“I had absolutely no idea” how cryptocurrencies worked, Bankman-Fried said. “I just knew they were things you could trade.”
The first Alameda office was in an Airbnb in Berkeley, California, he said. It was listed as a two bedroom but they used the couch in the living room as a third bed and the attic as a fourth.
He started FTX in 2019. Trading volume grew substantially on FTX from a few million dollars a day to tens of millions of dollars that year to hundreds of millions of dollars in 2020. By 2022, that number was up to $10 billion to $15 billion of dollars per day in trading volume, he said.
Bankman-Fried said Alameda was permitted to borrow from FTX, but his understanding was that the money was coming from margin trades, collateral from other margin trades or assets earning interest on the platform.
At FTX, there were no general restrictions on what could be done with funds that were borrowed as long as the company believed assets were greater than liabilities, Bankman-Fried testified.
In 2020, a routine liquidation gone wrong led to some of the special borrowing permissions at Alameda, he said. The risk engine was sagging under the weight of growth. A liquidation that should have been in the thousands of dollars was in the trillions of dollars. Alameda was suddenly underwater because of closing the position.
The incident exposed a larger concern, that the potential of an erroneous liquidation of Alameda could be disastrous for users.
Bankman-Fried said he talked to FTX’s engineering director Nishad Singh and co-founder Gary Wang, both of whom testified earlier on behalf of the prosecution. They suggested creating an alert, which would prompt the user to deposit more collateral, or a delay, Bankman-Fried said. They later implemented a feature like that, he said, adding that he learned it was the “allow negative” feature.
Bankman-Fried testified that he wasn’t aware of the amount Alameda was borrowing or its theoretical max. As long as the net asset value was positive on the exchange and the scale of borrowing was reasonable, increasing the line of credit so Alameda could keep filling orders was fine, he said. Bankman-Fried added that he now believes what Singh and Wang did was increase the line of credit.
Tough sell
Convincing the jury will be a tall order for Bankman-Fried after a mountain of damning evidence was presented by the government.
Prosecutors also entered corroborating materials, including encrypted Signal messages and other internal documents that appear to show Bankman-Fried orchestrating the spending of FTX customer money.
The defense’s case, which consists of Bankman-Fried’s testimony along with that of two witnesses who took the stand Thursday morning, hinges largely on whether the jury believes the defendant didn’t intend to commit fraud.
On Thursday, under questioning led by Cohen, Bankman-Fried appeared to place much of the criminal blame on FTX’s chief regulatory officer, Dan Friedberg, as well as outside counsel Fenwick & West, which advised the crypto exchange. Bankman-Fried spoke about Friedberg’s active involvement in everything from the companywide auto-deletion policy on messaging apps like Signal, to the creation of Alameda’s North Dimension bank account, where billions of dollars worth of FTX customer money was funneled.
The former FTX chief also said that the hundreds of millions of dollars in personal loans to himself and other founders of the platform were structured through promissory notes drafted by his in-house legal team and discussed in concert with his general counsel and Friedberg. Having the blessing of his legal counsel was something that SBF said he “took comfort in.”
— CNBC’s Dawn Giel contributed to this report
Kia is about to go on the offensive. The automaker plans to nearly triple electric vehicle production in Europe within the next two years as it introduces the new EV2 and EV4.
Kia doubles down on EV2 and EV4 production plans
With the EV2 and EV4 joining the lineup, Kia will offer an electric vehicle for nearly everyone. The EV2 is Kia’s smallest, most affordable electric car, set to sit below the EV3.
Despite its compact size, Kia said the EV2 will “redefine urban electric mobility” with a flexible interior, its latest connectivity tech, and more.
According to Kia’s CEO, Ho Sung Song, the company plans to build about 100,000 EV2s at its Zilina plant in Slovakia.
“The average annual production of the upcoming EV2 is expected to reach around 100,000 units at the Zilina plant in Slovakia in 2027,” Song told Automotive News Europe earlier this month.
Kia is also scaling up output of its first electric hatchback, the EV4. By 2027, Kia plans to build over 80,000 EV4s at the Zilina plant. If you add in the EV4 Fastback or sedan models built in Korea, “the EV4’s combined global production is expected to reach approximately 100,000 units,” Kia’s CEO said.
Song explained that Kia aims to produce 100,000 EV2 and EV4 models globally each year, as this volume will be high enough to make them profitable.
The new production target is considerably higher than what Kia Europe CEO Marc Hedrich told Automotive News Europe in August.
Hedrich said that combined EV2 and EV4 production could account for 10% and 20% of the output at the Zilina plant in 2026, adding that a production goal of 20,000 to 30,000 EV4s “would certainly make sense” next year.
Officials from Kia Europe explained that production plans shifted after the EV4 received better-than-expected feedback following its launch in August.
Kia began EV4 production on August 20, marking a milestone as its first EV built in Europe. Kia is investing €108 million ($125 million) in the Zilina plant to produce the EV2 and EV4. The EV2 will join in 2026.
The facility has the capacity to build 320,000 vehicles, but Kia said output could be expanded to 350,000 with overtime.
Kia has yet to reveal final specs, but given the EV3 is about 4,300 mm (169.3″) in length, the EV2 is expected to be slightly smaller at around 4,000 mm (157″). That’s about the size of Hyundai’s entry-level EV, the Inster, at 3,825 mm (150″) in length.
Like the EV9 and recently launched EV5, Kia’s compact electric car features a more upright, crossover-SUV-like design.
Although Kia’s overall sales are down 3% in Europe through August, EV sales are up 56% to 71,179. The EV3 is driving growth as Kia’s second-best-selling vehicle behind the Sportage and as the seventh best-selling EV in Europe. Through the first eight months of 2025, Kia sold 45,269 EV3s in the region.
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Honda’s electric SUV was the third most popular EV in the US in August, behind the Tesla Model Y and Model 3. Offering over $12,000 in average incentives, the Honda Prologue scored big as buyers rushed to claim the federal EV tax credit.
Honda Prologue registrations surge with huge incentives
As the $7,500 credit expired at the end of September, automakers were offering pretty notable discounts, many in the five digits with combined incentives.
The Honda Prologue has been one of the most discounted EVs over the past few months. Last month, buyers could score up to over $20,000 in combined savings, including a $7,500 credit, $9,500 in financing bonuses, trade-in offers, and 0% interest for six years.
According to the latest registration data from S&P Global Mobility (via Automotive News), the incentives helped propel the Honda Prologue to become the third most popular EV in August.
A total of 138,457 EVs were registered in the US in August, up 24% from a year ago. Honda Prologue registrations surged 81% to 9,005 vehicles, the data showed.
Since some automakers don’t report monthly or US sales numbers, the S&P Global Mobility data offers a snapshot of sales performance.
The Prologue was yet again one of the most discounted models, with incentives of $12,704 in August, according to Motor Intelligence. Last August, Prologue incentives were just $5,813. Honda’s gas-powered CR-V had just $2,016 in incentives in August.
Although the $7,500 credit expired on September 30, Honda is still offering generous incentives for Prologue buyers and lessees.
The 2025 Honda Prologue is available with up to $16,550 in lease cash in most states. Alternatively, Honda is offering 0% APR financing for up to 60 months.
2025 Honda Prologue trim |
Starting Price* | EPA Range (miles) |
| EX (FWD) | $47,400 | 308 |
| EX (AWD) | $50,400 | 294 |
| Touring (FWD) | $51.700 | 308 |
| Touring (AWD) | $54,700 | 294 |
| Elite (AWD) | $57,900 | 283 |
Although the Acura ZDX will not return for a 2026 model year, Honda is planning to launch the 2026 Prologue. We have yet to learn prices, but we could see it priced slightly lower due to the loss of the $7,500 EV credit.
Hyundai announced earlier this month it’s reducing 2026 IONIQ 5 prices by up to nearly $10,000 on some trims. The 2026 Hyundai IONIQ 5 now starts at under $35,000. Will Honda match it?
Want to check out the Prologue for yourself? You can use our link to find available Honda Prologue models in your area (trusted affiliate link).
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XCharge North America (NA) has opened Oregon’s first solar + storage DC fast charging station at Arrowhead Travel Plaza in Pendleton, part of the Wildhorse Resort & Casino complex owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
NetZero Energy helped bring the project to life, handling system design and project management. The solar canopy provides renewable power to the chargers, while the integrated batteries make the site more resilient and capable of off-grid operation during outages.
The new station integrates four dual-dispenser 215kWh GridLink chargers with 40kW of solar that can output up to 194kW per unit, allowing drivers to charge quickly with CCS1 or NACS plugs while reducing strain on the grid. The site’s location on Interstate 84 is key because Arrowhead serves more than 1.7 million vehicles a year. Many drive the steep, rough weather-prone Cabbage Hill grade, where a full charge is essential for safety.
“We partnered with XCharge NA because they provide a grid-friendly charging solution with battery storage that seamlessly integrates with a custom solar canopy – a perfect fit for our climate,” said Tom Fine, general manager of Arrowhead Travel Plaza.
Each GridLink charger includes bidirectional capability, meaning it can send power back to the grid or function off-grid in the event of an emergency. It also has a built-in safety system that monitors battery packs with multiple sensors and fire suppression technology.
With this project, XCharge North America now operates in 18 states. Cofounder and president Aatish Patel called Oregon’s first solar-supplemented DC fast-charging site a milestone: “Our Arrowhead Travel Plaza installation goes beyond simply delivering ultra-fast charging – it’s a powerful demonstration of how integrating our GridLink technology with solar power can offset grid demand, enhance a charging site’s resilience and flexibility, and even bolster the region’s energy architecture.”
Read more: XCharge NA is now leasing DC fast chargers to small businesses
The 30% federal solar tax credit is ending this year. If you’ve ever considered going solar, now’s the time to act. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to
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