Gary Wang, FTX’s co-founder and former chief technology officer, again appeared in court on the fourth day of the criminal trial of former CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried to speak on the connections between the crypto exchange and Alameda Research.
According to reports from Inner City Press, Wang returned to a New York courtroom on Oct. 6 and testified that Alameda’s account on FTX was the only one authorized to trade more than it had available — a feature called “allow negative.” The former chief technology officer reportedly claimed Bankman-Fried had ordered Wang and former FTX engineering director Nishad Singh to implement the feature in 2019.
The “allow negative” addition to FTX code’s, according to Wang, allowed Alameda to achieve a negative balance that was more than FTX had in revenue in 2020 — $200 million versus $150 million. He reportedly testified that Bankman-Fried had given Alameda a $65-billion line of credit despite making contrary statements to the public on the relationship between the two firms.
“We had said we wouldn’t use funds like this,” said Wang, according to reports. “After I said the Alameda balances were off by billions, [SBF] asked to meet in the Bahamas office. He asked me about the bug, and then he told Caroline [Ellison] Alameda can go ahead and return the borrows.”
According to Wang, Bankman-Fried claimed Alameda’s “special privileges” on FTX were centered around the exchange’s FTX Token (FTT), which the firm used for trading “when its account balance was below zero.” The former chief technology officer reportedly testified Alameda had been able to withdraw funds directly from FTX.
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At the center of the prosecution’s case against Bankman-Fried are allegations that the former CEO was responsible for using FTX user funds at Alameda without customers’ consent. During his testimony on Oct. 5, Wang admitted to committing crimes with Bankman-Fried and former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, having already pleaded guilty to fraud charges in December 2022.
“Just as the Elizabeth Holmes trial was not about diagnostic testing, the SBF trial is not about crypto,” Sheila Warren, CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, told Cointelegraph. “Sam is having a spectacular and ongoing implosion, and as this trial continues, we expect to see further evidence that Sam was out there primarily for himself.”
Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial is expected to continue through November, as Ellison and Singh are also likely witnesses against the former CEO. Between his stints in court, SBF will likely remain in jail through the trial following Judge Lewis Kaplan revoking his bail in August. It’s unclear if Bankman-Fried plans to take the stand himself.
Reform’s plan was meant to be detailed. Instead, there’s more confusion.
The party had grown weary of the longstanding criticism that their tough talk on immigration did not come with a full proposal for what they would do to tackle small boats if they came to power.
So, after six months of planning, yesterday they attempted to put flesh on to the bones of their flagship policy.
At an expensive press conference in a vast airhanger in Oxford, the headline news was clear: Reform UK would deport anyone who comes here by small boat, arresting, detaining and then deporting up to 600,000 people in the first five years of governing.
They would leave international treaties and repeal the Human Rights Act to do it
But, one day later, that policy is clear as mud when it comes to who this would apply to.
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Image: Nigel Farage launched an airport-style departures board to illustrate how many illegal migrants have arrived in the UK. Pic: PA
I asked Farage at the time of the announcement whether this would apply to women and girls – an important question – as the basis for their extreme policy seemed to hinge on the safety of women and girls in the UK.
He was unequivocal: “Yes, women and children, everybody on arrival will be detained.
“And I’ve accepted already that how we deal with children is a much more complicated and difficult issue.”
But a day later, he appeared to row back on this stance at a press conference in Scotland, saying Reform is “not even discussing women and children at this stage”.
He later clarified that if a single woman came by boat, then they could fall under the policy, but if “a woman comes with children, we will work out the best thing to do”.
A third clarification in the space of 24 hours on a flagship policy they worked on over six months seems like a pretty big gaffe, and it only feeds into the Labour criticism that these plans aren’t yet credible.
If they had hoped to pivot from rhetoric to rigour, this announcement showed serious pitfalls.
But party strategists probably will not be tearing out too much hair over this, with polling showing Reform UK still as the most trusted party on the issue of immigration overall.
The “White Whale” increased his social media pressure campaign to $2.5 million after claiming that MEXC requested an in-person KYC verification in Malaysia.
Prosecutors appealed the sentences given to HashFlare founders Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin, after arguing the pair should get 10 years in prison.