Will SBF Testify?

Prosecutors expect to rest their case in the criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried next week (after the trial won’t meet for four consecutive business days), setting up the defense’s opportunity to persuade jurors they should not convict him on any of the seven fraud and conspiracy charges he faces.

The case was already an uphill battle for Bankman-Fried and his defense team, led by Mark Cohen of the law firm Cohen & Gresser. Media reports and bankruptcy filings about how Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research trading firm used billions of FTX customer funds came out soon after the exchange collapsed last November. It was expected that prosecutors for the Southern District of New York would likely have loads of evidence to offer in court. And federal prosecutors also have a stunning track record, having won 99% of cases that went to trial last year, according to a Pew Research Center study.