Sam Bankman-Fried Trial: Prosecution vs. Defense in Explaining Crypto

• The juror’s crypto knowledge may prove vital in the ongoing Sam Bankman-Fried trial.
• Prosecutors will avoid delving into the technical aspects of crypto in seeking a conviction.
• Experts say the defense may rely on confusion about the nature of crypto to sway the case in their favor.

The prosecutor’s path to success may be more difficult than many people realize as the Sam Bankman-Fried trial reaches a new high point, according to a Wall Street Journal report. In particular, jurors sitting on the case may have little crypto knowledge, which the report said the defense may use to their advantage.

Jury selection for Bankman-Fried’s trial gets underway this Tuesday, and it has already raised several speculations and rumors. The former crypto billionaire and crypto exchange FTX founder faces allegations of scams, mismanagement of customer funds, and fraud, and recently, his parents were sued in an attempt to clawback funds.

According to the report, the technical nature of crypto assets and platforms may be an issue, depending on which side it is viewed from. For the prosecutors, the game plan for the trial is to explain in simple terms and through analogies what the crypto exchange FTX and cryptocurrencies are.

Furthermore, experts interviewed in the report said that prosecutors would take a more straightforward path instead of delving into the technical aspects of crypto. Per the report, prosecutors will most likely tell “a straightforward story about lying and stealing.”

On the other hand, some experts believe the defense will use the age-long trick of confusion to prevent a conviction. Rebecca Mermelstein, a former federal prosecutor, said, “If the jury can’t understand what was happening, they can’t convict.”

In court filings, attorneys for Bankman-Fried have disclosed the possibility of delving into the technical aspects of cryptocurrency. They claimed breaking down the complexities would help show that their client never intended to defraud anyone.

However, the lawyers have met some restrictions in deploying this plan since the start of the trial. The court has rejected many of their proposed expert witnesses based on their relevance to the case. Moreover, the judge has limited their use of key experts who, the lawyers said, will help explain crypto market movements.