Starbursts, smuggled coffee and Martin Shkreli: How CNBC reported the Sam Bankman-Fried trial
Sam Bankman-Fried stands as forewoman reads the verdict to the court.
Artist: Elizabeth Williams
Just before 8 p.m. on Thursday, 12 jurors found Sam Bankman-Fried guilty of all seven counts against him. You could have heard a pin drop in the courtroom as the forewoman repeated the word “guilty” seven times in a row into a handheld microphone.
Bankman-Fried stood facing the jury box, neither flinching nor betraying any sort of emotion. In less than three hours of deliberation, jurors had swiftly come to the conclusion that Bankman-Fried had defrauded FTX customers, as well as lenders to its sister hedge fund, Alameda Research.
Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial was held in room 26b on the top floor of 500 Pearl Street, one of two federal courthouses of the Southern District of New York. The building fast became the de facto headquarters for many journalists over the last five weeks.
The courthouse had a few hard-and-fast rules, and a number of looser guidelines depending on who was on duty.
The big non-negotiable was no electronics in the courthouse. There were certain workarounds, like having a seat in the media room, which required your publication to have covered around half a dozen SDNY cases. There, you have access to electricity and internet, an absolute game changer when every second counts. (CNBC put out a note requesting access ahead of the trial — an email which was ultimately ignored.)
The second workaround involved borrowing the resources of CNBC’s capable and kind television photographers. Stashing a backpack with electronics in a car parked on Pearl Street made it possible to sprint from the courtroom to the car, then to a nearby park bench, where this CNBC writer could type and dispatch notes to editors in San Francisco. A 65-watt power bank compatible with a USB-C laptop charging cord proved essential to the operation.
As the days grew colder, it was essential to have a seat in a car to keep your fingers warm. Every exit to file a report included another breakneck trip through security, in a sort of run, rinse, repeat cycle — security, courtroom, exit, photographer’s car to file, back up through security, over and over again. Running shoes were part of the daily uniform.
If you had neither a seat in the media room nor a trusted colleague with whom to stash your electronics, the alternative was opting into the court’s coat check system, which looks like a scene from a Vegas casino. Depending upon the number of electronics you have, you get a different colored poker chip.
For CNBC, the chip was always black, and this writer was able to sprint past the coat check and get up to the courtroom faster than people who had to check their belongings. It also made for a swifter exit not having to wait in line to retrieve checked items.
No electronics inside the courthouse meant relying on a steady stash of notebooks, pens, and highlighters. A non-smart watch was another must-have, as were easily hidden snacks like Starbursts and mini chocolate chip Clif bars.
And perhaps second in importance only to pen and paper was an opaque water bottle that could hold coffee — tantamount to illicit contraband in the courthouse. (Rumor had it that a spilled coffee resulted in a $100,000 expense to replace the portion of carpet affected by the mishap.)
Another essential hack was keeping all supplies in a clear Auburn University totebag, an accessory that garnered a lot of attention from one security guard who was a Georgia fan. The bag’s transparency expedited the process of getting through security in a game where every second made a difference.
A cafe on the 8th floor offered the cheapest quality lunch you can find in downtown Manhattan, including discounted prices on candy like M&Ms and Starbursts.
In the courtroom, only 21 seats were reserved for the public, including journalists. Some days, it was easier to land a spot than others. On the eve of Bankman-Fried’s second day of testimony before the jury, for example, the line began at 10 p.m. the night before, and the 21st seat was taken by around 3 a.m. the following morning.
CNBC correspondent MacKenzie Sigalos reporting on the Sam Bankman-Fried trial from outside the SDNY courthouse at 500 Pearl Street in downtown Manhattan.
Dan Mangan
Over time, some long-haul reporters grew to prefer the overflow courtrooms on the 23rd and 24th floors. In overflow, events from the proceedings were live streamed on a series of monitors, and unlike the room where it was all going down, you had a bit more freedom to sometimes eat and drink whatever you wanted, to (reportedly) vape and take side bets on government objection tallies, and critically, to laugh out loud when testimony seemed especially evasive or outrageous.
Overflow contained a veritable who’s who of journalists, actors, bestselling authors, and white-collar criminals.
During the first week of the trial, Martin Shkreli, the so-called “Pharma bro,” who was sent to federal prison for hiking the price of a life-saving drug by around 5,000% overnight, showed up to watch.
Across the multiple days of Bankman-Fried’s testimony, CNBC correspondent Andrew Ross-Sorkin popped into overflow after he wrapped his morning show, as did the defendant’s recent biographer, Michael Lewis, who always had on a pair of HOKA sneakers — off-white from wear, with neon-peach colored laces and bright yellow soles.
Lewis would often slip in at the last minute, queueing in the security line around 9:26 a.m. one morning, allowing just a few minutes before the trial was due to resume. Intentionally arriving late is a pro move. If you aren’t going to be one of the first 21 people to arrive, the goal is to cut it as close as possible to the start of court. Staying with your electronics allowed you to optimize for time writing while concurrently skipping the long wait in line. One journalist compared the just-in-time strategy to an Indiana Jones-style entrance.
Lewis, whose book about Bankman-Fried and his inner circle was released on the first day of trial, was often swarmed in the elevator and on breaks from testimony by other writers keen for a moment with the author.
Then there was Ben McKenzie, an actor who first rose to stardom with his leading role on the long-running show, The O.C. McKenzie, who has had a lengthy acting career since, recently ventured into the world of crypto reporting with a book he co-wrote, “Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud.”
Attorneys and interested civilians also filled the pews of overflow.
This motley crew of characters became close over the course of five weeks. Cut off from electronics and connections to the outside world, an inevitable bond of camaraderie formed. These were the people who helped you fill a missing name or finish a quote when you had 20 seconds in the elevator before sprinting out to grab your laptop.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents, seated to the left, react to the verdict. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams is seated to the far right.
Artist: Elizabeth Williams
The moment of truth
Back in the courtroom on Thursday evening, the anticipation was palpable in room 26b on the top floor of 500 Pearl Street. Every pew was filled with the same faces that had crowded the courthouse since the trial began on Oct. 3 — a group comprised of some of the top names in business and crypto news media.
Most in the gallery were dressed in multiple layers of fleece-lined jackets, sweaters, and a mix of jeans and sweatpants. Any hint of formal dress was gone by the second week of court, in part thanks to the weather. Over the course of the monthlong trial, the temperature had plunged from 79 degrees Fahrenheit to 42 degrees on the evening the verdict was read.
But in Judge Kaplan’s courtroom that evening, there was no way of knowing what it was like outside. Typically, during the day, the ceiling-high windows along the perimeter of the courtroom would offer unrivaled views over the Manhattan skyline. But that night, opaque white blinds obscured the world beyond the domain of the 78-year-old judge.
The jury had been sent to deliberate at 3:15 p.m. and had been given an hour to eat pizza for dinner, courtesy of the government. By 7:30 p.m., it was unclear to the room of writers whether the jury would reach a unanimous decision by the deadline of 8 p.m., when the last security shift ended. They’d had less than four hours to consider the evidence in a trial that had run for a month and consisted of nearly 20 witnesses and hundreds of exhibits.
Then, at 7:37 p.m., attorneys for both the government and the defense rushed back as the clerk announced, “The jury has reached a verdict.” A minute later, jurors were back in their seats.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is questioned by prosecutor Danielle Sassoon (not seen) during his fraud trial over the collapse of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange at federal court in New York City, U.S., October 31, 2023 in this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
All eyes were trained on Bankman-Fried, as well his parents, Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried, who sat clutching one another in the second row. Neither they nor their son shed a tear over the course of the proceedings, in what appeared to be stoicism or perhaps a reflection of an emotional callus built up over months of fighting against regulators, prosecutors, the FTX bankruptcy estate, and paparazzi.
A scene in the security line outside the courthouse one morning was typical. A photographer, standing outside tinted glass designed to conceal the faces within, held a portable light above his head as he stalked Bankman-Fried’s parents along a thirty-foot stretch. Over the course of ten minutes, he inched along the line with them, flashing his light hundreds of times to capture the perfect shot of two people at the lowest point in their lives.
Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried arrive for the trial of their son, former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried, who is facing fraud charges over the collapse of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, at Federal Court in New York City, U.S., October 26, 2023.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
The defendant wore a purple tie with his black suit, which hung loose on his gaunt frame. His face, drawn, made his ears stand out a bit more than usual, and his iconic curls had returned. The fresh haircut he donned during the first week of trial, reportedly given to him by a fellow inmate, had lost its form and given way to the wild tendrils now synonymous with the man once regaled as the king of crypto.
Kaplan instructed Bankman-Fried to stand and face the jury box as the verdicts were read. The only other person standing was the forewoman.
By 7:47 p.m., Bankman-Fried’s fate had been delivered. Bankman-Fried’s parents hunched over and buried their head in their hands, but true to form, they stopped short of crying.
Immediately after the guilty verdicts, the defense’s principal trial attorney, Mark Cohen, asked for a poll of the jurors. A courtroom official went juror by juror, asking each if their verdict was read properly. Each said yes.
Judge Kaplan thanked the jurors for their service, adding a flourish of personal anecdotes to his final address to the jury. The twelve civilians stared blankly as the judge thanked them for paying attention and for learning the inner workings of the crypto industry.
The jurors were escorted out. Judge Kaplan congratulated attorneys on both sides on having done a “good job,” then departed himself.
Bankman-Fried, his parents, and a few dozen reporters lingered behind in the courtroom.
Bankman-Fried had never sat back down after the judge left. His gaze, angled downward, remained facing the judge’s bench. He stood flanked by attorney Christian Everdell on his left and Cohen on his right. Cohen, whispering into his ear, occasionally placed his left hand on Sam’s back as a sign of support.
It was silent in 26b. Writers stood and gathered toward the center aisle leading to the bar separating the defendant’s table and jury box from the gallery. Standing at the back of the crowd, people gathered as if behind a prophet, waiting for a word.
Around 8:02 p.m., Bankman-Fried, speechless, began to walk to a room just adjacent to the main court. His parents were standing at the front of the center aisle, waiting for their son.
The Greek cities of Athens and Thessaloniki are popular tourist spots, and those tourists are about to breathe a little bit easier – literally! – thanks to nearly 90 new electric garbage trucks from Mitsubishi Fuso.
The Daimler-owned Mitsubishi Fuso brand has been making big moves since export of its newest electric eCanter medium duty truck kicked off earlier this year. First expanding to Hong Kong, and now taking orders in the EU.
“Thanks to its compact dimensions and high chassis load capacity, the electric Next Generation eCanter is ideal for waste disposal companies that drive on narrow roads,” says Florian Schulz, Head of Sales, Marketing and Customer Services. “In addition, the vehicle is locally emission-free and quiet, so that garbage can be emptied early in the morning in densely populated areas. This makes it particularly suitable for municipal applications.”
One of the most important goals the cities’ governments had was to quiet down the garbage collection process. To that end, Greek body manufacturer KAOUSSIS has put a lot of development work into the upfit body to quiet the hydraulic and compaction actions. The company is calling its refuse body “the first of its kind,” creating a market advantage for the electric eCanter while meeting all EU technical regulations for operating waste disposal vehicles with standing personnel.
The hydraulic system employs proportional, electro-hydraulically operated directional valves that operate at a maximum pressure of 180 bar. KAOUSSIS says it’s specially designed for EVs, and is compatible with garbage bins between 80 and 390 liter (aka: really big) capacities. The lift also features a dynamic weighing system that records the weight of the waste with an accuracy of up to ±0.5 kg (about a pound).
“We have had a very close cooperation with KAOUSSIS for over 30 years,” says Antonios Evangeloulis, Director of Sales & Marketing of the Greek importer & general agent for Daimler truck products and services Star Automotive Hellas. “All the necessary tools, safety measures, technicians, training and certifications are in place and we are able to offer excellent after-sales support for these vehicles. Overall, it was an exciting project that we were able to realize together.”
Forty of the new electric refuse trucks are expected to be deployed by the end of November, with the balance expected to be delivered over the course of 2025.
Electrek’s Take
Electrifying the commercial truck fleet is a key part of decarbonizing city truck fleets – not just here in the US, but around the world. I called the eCanter, “a great product for moving stuff around densely packed city streets,” and garbage is definitely “stuff.”
Here’s hoping we see more “right size” electric solutions like this one in small towns and tight urban environments stateside somewhat sooner than later.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Daimler Trucks, via Charged EVs.
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![Italian DC fast charger maker Alpitronic enters the US market [video]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/09/Seite-1-KeyVisual_alpitronic_2hypercharger-scaled-1.jpg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
Electrek‘s Seth Weintraub went to Alpitronic America’s new HQ to speak with CEO Mike Doucleff about its plans to roll out its ultra-fast chargers across the US.
Bolzano, Italy-based Alpitronic was founded in 2009, and it specializes in the development and production of DC fast chargers. The global company’s best-known product line is the Hypercharger, an ultra-fast EV charging station that can deliver charging power from 50 kW to 400 kW, depending on the model.
Alpitronic Americas recently announced an agreement with Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging to become the first DC fast-charging network to deploy Hypercharger 400 units at scale in the US.
Alpitronics Americas’ new headquarters’ 68,000-square-foot office and industrial space in Charlotte, North Carolina, includes a diagnostics laboratory and repair center, a spare parts warehouse, a training center, and space for as many as 300 employees.
The Bolzano, Italy-based company’s Hyperchargers achieve, on average, an efficiency rate greater than 97.5%, and that its repair and service network can service chargers anywhere in the US.
Alpitronic cofounder and CEO Philipp Senoner said, “As a natural part of Alpitronic’s growth, we are anxious to expand our industry-leading Hypercharger network from Europe, where we are market-share leader, to North America. We are pleased with the talent we are finding in North Carolina and look forward to setting a new standard for the EV charging network in the US.”
Alpitronic chargers support all EV brands. Pre-production units have been tested publicly in Rock Hill, SC, and Portland, OR. The first US-built, public chargers are expected to be installed and available in October.
Seth and Mike Doucleff discuss what Aliptronic’s main driver was to come to the US, what attracted them to Charlotte, and what the company thinks the future of DC fast chargers is in the US, among other things. Their conversation begins at 00:41 on the Electrek podcast below:
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![Volvo CE rolls out some new hotness at Volvo Days 2024 [part 1]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/09/IMG_3231.jpg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
This week, Volvo Group held its once-every-three-years “Volvo Days” event in Shippensburg, PA for the first time since the pandemic, showing off tons (literally!) of new equipment, new trucks, and new concepts – including a couple of “world’s first” debuts.
What is Volvo Days? That might require a bit of background …
The heavy equipment world operates on something of a three-year cycle. ConExpo, the industry’s biggest trade show, happens every three years. That sets the tone, with companies showing off all their hottest concepts and forward-thinking new projects. That’s year 1. Year 2 is typically when shows like Volvo Days typically take place, with manufacturers rolling out the production versions of the concepts they showed at ConExpo and inviting a mix of dealers, end-users, and journalists in to try out some of what got showed at ConExpo. Year 3 is more insular, with the manufacturers bringing in salespeople to get them trained on new products and prepare them for how to talk about what the company is planning to show at next year’s ConExpo.
ConExpo was last year, so this year we get Volvo Days – for the first time since 2018, in fact, since the 2021 event was canceled due to COVID. That makes this the first Volvo Days in six years … and expectations were high.
The kickoff
Volvo kicked off the week’s events with a drone display highlighting the company’s construction equipment history – appropriate, given that the event was held at Volvo CE’s Pennsylvania engineering and production campus. The drone show was followed by a genuinely impressive, highly choreographed equipment ballet that featured new electric equipment shown for the first time in North America, as well as the new-for-2025 Volvo VNL and Mack MD Electric trucks doing some heavy lifting and hauling.
The show lasted well over thirty minutes, and it was impossible for me to keep track of everything that was happening, but you can get a sense of it in the video (above).
Compact electric equipment
Volvo had its new, in-production L20/120 Electric wheel loader and ECR25 Electric excavator front and center in its reception center, along with information highlighting their competitive advantages in the compact equipment space.
The best thing about Volvo Days, however, isn’t that they have interesting vehicles on display – it’s the fact that nearly every one of those interesting vehicles is available to experience first hand … including the 30-ton EC230 Electric excavator.
All the electric excavators (even the mini) were incredibly smooth and quiet, with noticeably fewer vibrations than their diesel counterparts … which we also got to play with.
That said, I’m not a “real” equipment operator, which means my seat of the pants impressions are probably worth less than those of the people who use these things every day. That’s why I was glad to have Mike Switzer, my co-host on The Heavy Equipment Podcast, along for the ride.
“It’s really impressive, and the articulation on the Steelwrist is incredible,” Mike told me, after hopping out of the demo EC230. “I’ve seen it before, obviously, but I’ve never had a chance to use it. I think every municipality needs to take a look at that.”
Electric compaction
Over on the compaction side, Volvo had its DD25 Electric vibrating drum compactor on display – where the all-electric tandem roller was joined by two all-new siblings being shown off for the first time ever: a pre-production DD15 Electric “mini” compactor prototype seemingly designed for sidewalks and driveways, and the TC13 Electric trench compactor.
The TC13 Electric is designed as a walk-behind unit that uses its heavy batteries to provide the compaction mass – but those heavy batteries won’t get depleted in the hour or so of operation that most trench compactors see on a busy day. To keep the little TC13 useful throughout the day, Volvo gave it a pair of 110 and 220V outlets.
Specs weren’t released, but Volvo’s compaction brand manager claimed those outlets were more than capable of keeping the rest of the job site’s battery-operated tools running all day long, and even packed enough juice (in a pinch) to power a portable office, table saw, or drill press.
“Did you see his face when I asked if it could run an arc welder?” asked Mike, smiling. “He said, ‘It’s not something we’d advise,’ but you could tell he liked that question.”
Yeah, he did!
Electrek’s Take
Somewhere around the twenty minute mark of the “equipment ballet” show, something broke inside my brain. I think it was the sparks flying off the bucket when the L20 Electric scooped up a few thousand pounds of gravel and sand at full speed, scraping its bucket along the ground. Maybe it was the hydrogen-powered articulated loader, or the open bar.
Regardless, one thing that was made very clear at Volvo Days ’24 is that, while other companies are still developing the initial entries into the electric commercial vehicle space, Volvo has not just a full line of products – but an expanding line of products, with the company entering new spaces specifically because of the unique advantages electric offers.
As Volvo’s North American President, Scott Young, explains, the future is electric, and Volvo’s vision for the future has the company firmly in the leadership position … but more on that in part 2.
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