Free pizza and Ubers: Judge will hold jurors past 8 p.m. as Sam Bankman-Fried trial enters final stretch
Indicted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrives at the United States Courthouse in New York City, July 26, 2023.
Amr Alfiky | Reuters
The government is paying for pizza and Uber rides home for the 12 jurors in lower Manhattan who will decide the fate of Sam Bankman-Fried.
In court on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan told jurors he would keep them until 8:15 p.m. as the criminal trial of the FTX founder enters its final stretch. Kaplan had previously hinted at the expedited timeline, while reassuring the jury that he wasn’t rushing anyone.
Closing arguments wrapped up on Wednesday, followed by the prosecution’s rebuttal Thursday morning. Now the trial moves to jury instructions and then deliberations.
No proceedings are scheduled for Friday due in part to a juror’s conflicting schedule. Should deliberations last beyond Thursday evening, they would resume on Monday.
Bankman-Fried, the 31-year old son of two Stanford legal scholars, faces a potential life sentence if convicted on charges, which include wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering, all tied to the collapse late last year of FTX and sister hedge fund Alameda Research. He pleaded not guilty.
The trial, which began about a month ago, has largely pitted the testimony of Bankman-Fried’s former close friends and top lieutenants against the sworn statements of their former boss and ex-roomate.
The government’s key witnesses included Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend and the former head of Alameda, FTX co-founder Gary Wang, who was Bankman-Fried’s childhood friend from math camp, and former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh. All three pleaded guilty to multiple charges and cooperated as witnesses for the prosecution.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is questioned by defense lawyer Mark Cohen as he testifies in his fraud trial over the collapse of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, at federal court in New York City, U.S., October 30, 2023 in this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
In the government’s rebuttal Thursday morning to the defense’s closing argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Danielle Sassoon reminded the jury about the heart of the case. Billions of dollars of customer money from Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange went missing.
Telling customers that their assets are safe and then taking that money and using it for personal and other company expenditures is not a reasonable business decision — but fraud, Sassoon said.
The defendant had the “arrogance to think that he could get away with fraud,” she said. He wanted influence and power, and Sassoon referred to the testimony of a witness, who said Bankman-Fried thought he could someday be president.
Sassoon responded to the defense’s argument that cooperating witnesses were incentivized to blame Bankman-Fried in order to lessen their sentence, calling those allegations “outrageous.”
“If you believe Caroline, the defendant is guilty,” Sassoon told the jury in her rebuttal. “If you believe Gary, the defendant is guilty. If you believe Nishad, the defendant is guilty.”
Sassoon added that Ellison, as a co-conspirator, operated in dread and fear waiting for customers to realize their money was gone.
One of Bankman-Fried’s main defenses was that he made mistakes, primarily related to risk management and in not hiring a chief risk officer. Sassoon says that’s not a defense — it was a strategy.
“If you’re embezzling money, of course you’re not going to have a chief risk officer,” she said.
Sassoon ended by telling jurors that Bankman-Fried thought he could fool customers, reporters, the public and now them.
“Don’t fall for it,” she said. “Find him guilty.”
After Sassoon wrapped up her rebuttal, the judge moved into one of the trial’s final stages, a step known as charging the jury. The multi-hour process involves reading jurors a 60-page set of instructions. When he’s done, the jury will enter deliberations until they land on a verdict.
WATCH: Prosecutors, defense paint different versions of Sam Bankman-Fried
GreenPower Motor Company says it’s received three orders for 11 of its BEAST electric Type D school buses for western state school districts in Arizona, California, and Oregon.
GreenPower hasn’t made the sort of headline-grabbing promises or big-money commitments that companies like Nikola and Lion Electric have, but while those companies are floundering GPM seems to be plugging away, taking orders where it can and actually delivering buses to schools. Late last year, the company scored 11 more orders for its flagship BEAST electric school bus.
As far as these latest orders go, the breakdown is:
- seven to Los Banos Unified School District in Los Banos, California
- two for the Hood River County School District in Hood River, Oregon
- two for the Casa Grande Elementary School District in Casa Grande, Arizona
Those two BEAST electric school buses for Arizona will join another 90-passenger BEAST that was delivered to Phoenix Elementary School District #1, which operates 15 schools in the center of Phoenix, late last year.
“As school districts continue to make the change from NOx emitting diesel school buses to a cleaner, healthier means of transporting students, school district transportation departments are pursuing the gold standard of the industry – the GreenPower all-electric, purpose-built (BEAST) school buses,” said Paul Start, GreenPower’s Vice President of Sales, School Bus Group. “(The) GreenPower school bus order pipeline and production schedule are both at record levels with sales projections for (2025) set to eclipse the 2024 calendar year.”
GreenPower moved into an 80,000-square-foot production facility in South Charleston, West Virigina in August 2022, and delivered its first buses to that state the following year.
Electrek’s Take
Since the first horseless carriage companies started operating 100 years ago (give or take), at least 1,900 different companies have been formed in the US, producing over 3,000 brands of American automobiles. By the mid 1980s, that had distilled down to “the big 3.”
All of which is to say: don’t let the recent round of bankruptcies fool you – startups in the car and truck industry is business as usual, but some of these companies will stick around. If you’re wondering which ones, look to the ones that are making units, not promises.
SOURCE | IMAGES: GreenPower Motors.
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While some recent high-profile bankruptcies have cast doubt on the EV startup space recently, medium-duty electric truck maker Harbinger got a shot of credibility this week with a massive $100 million Series B funding round co-led by Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for fledgling EV brands like Lion Electric and Canoo, but box van builder Harbinger is bucking the trend, fueling its latest funding round with an order book of 4,690 vehicles that’s valued at nearly $500 million. Some of the company’s more notable customers including Bimbo Bakeries (which owns brands like Sara Lee, Thomas’, and Entenmann’s) and THOR Industries (Airstream, Jayco, Thor), which is also one of the investors in the Series B.
Other prominent investors include Tiger Global, the Coca-Cola System Sustainability Fund, and ArcTern Ventures.
As for what makes Harbinger such an attractive investment prospect, Dipender Saluja, Managing Partner of Capricorn Investment Group’s Technology Impact Fund explains that, “Harbinger has demonstrated a remarkable ability to reach significant milestones far quicker than other EV companies … the market has been impressed by their ability to develop large portions of the vehicle in-house to drive down unit costs, while remaining capital efficient.”
The company plans to use the funds to ramp up to higher-volume production capacity and deliver on existing orders, as well as build-out of the company’s sales, customer support, and service operations.
“Harbinger is entering a rapid growth phase where we are focused on scaling production of our customer-ready platform,” said John Harris, co-founder and CEO. “These funds catalyze significant revenue generation. We’ve developed a vehicle for a segment that is ripe for electrification, and there is a strong product/market fit that will help fuel our upward trajectory through 2025 and beyond.”
The company has raised $200 million since its inception in 2021.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Harbinger.
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There is no state more associated with cars and car culture than Michigan – and the state that’s home to the Motor City has just taken a huge step into the future with the deployment of its first-ever all electric police vehicle.
The 2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E patrol vehicle is assigned to the Michigan State Police State Security Operations Section, and will be to be used by armed, uniformed members of the MSP specializing in general law enforcement and security services at state-owned facilities in the Lansing, MI area.
“This is an exciting opportunity for us to research, in real time, how a battery electric vehicle performs on patrol,” says Col. James F. Grady II, director of the MSP. “Our state properties security officers patrol a substantially smaller number of miles per day than our troopers and motor carrier officers, within city limits and at lower speeds, coupled with the availability of charging infrastructure in downtown Lansing, making this the ideal environment to test the capabilities of a police-package battery electric vehicle.”
The MSP’s Precision Driving Unit is nationally renowned for its annual Police Vehicle Evaluation, which our own Scooter Doll participated in last year, driving the then-new Chevy Blazer EV Police Pursuit Vehicles in a game of “cops and robbers.”
In those tests, the EVs have impressed – but the MSP has been hesitant to commit to a BEV until now. “We began testing battery electric vehicles in 2022, but up until now hybrids were the only alternative fuel vehicle in our fleet,” said Lt. Nicholas Darlington, commander of the Precision Driving Unit. “Adding this battery electric vehicle to our patrol fleet will allow us to study the vehicle’s performance long-term to determine if there is a potential for cost savings and broader applicability within our fleet.”
Michigan joins other states like Wisconsin and California in deploying electric patrol cars and saving big money on fuel and maintenance, with many more out there and many more to come.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Michigan State Police.
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