Sam Bankman-Fried’s risky defense strategy faces a big test

Cross-examination of Bankman-Fried continues

Sam Bankman-Fried is to return to the stand today, as the former wunderkind faced a four-hour interrogation that exposed inconsistencies in his claim that he did not defraud clients of his bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.

Bankman-Fried made some explosive admissions. The biggest player in this has been Alameda Research, the sister hedge fund he controlled that was at the center of the collapse, causing billions in losses for investors, trading partners and clients. Under interrogation, he accepted That he played a major role before the Alameda explosion.

His decision to testify was long considered risky, and that became clear yesterday. The 31-year-old man, who is facing nearly the rest of his life in prison on fraud and money-laundering charges, gave brief “yes,” “no” and several “I’m not sure” responses, the latter to rebuke From the judge. This performance dealt a potential blow to his credibility in the eyes of the jurors.

The chief prosecutor used the same words as Bankman-Fried against him. Danielle Sassoon Clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who taught him how to shoot a pistol “And made me feel like I have patience.” That prosecutorial style came into focus when she confronted Bankman-Fried’s own statements to reporters, on Twitter and elsewhere, which appeared to contradict her contention that she always supports her clients.

Here’s what else we learned:

• Alameda had a virtually unlimited $65 billion line of credit with FTX. Bankman-Fried accepted that account yesterday when Sassoon showed jurors excerpts from an interview she gave to Zeke Fox for the Bloomberg News reporter’s new book, “Numbers Go Up.”

• Bankman-Fried acknowledged that Alameda was not subject to the same credit rules as other FTX clients – a point He first made it last year at the DealBook Summit In an interview with Andrew, which the prosecutor cited yesterday – and he acknowledged that Alameda’s venture investment was too large and posed too much risk on the hedge fund’s balance sheet.

• Bankman-Fried tried to minimize media coverage about her and FTX. “I disagreed with basically every article that was written about me,” he said after FTX collapsed.

The most difficult questions may arise. Three of Bankman-Freed’s closest associates have pleaded guilty and testified against him. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty, but has not offered much to refute her testimony. And prosecutors have yet to press Bankman-Fried on the events that led to FTX’s spectacular collapse late last year.

What’s going on over here

Eurozone inflation has eased as the economy has slowed. consumer prices increased The economy grew by a slower-than-expected 2.9 percent in October, the lowest level in more than two years. But gross domestic product declined 0.1 percent in the third quarter, worse than forecast, as a series of interest rate hikes slowed growth. Tomorrow, the focus will be on the Fed, which is expected to leave US rates unchanged.

BP’s stock has fallen after missing analysts’ estimates. The oil giant reported third-quarter adjusted net income of $3.29 billion, Much less than $4.05 billion Wall Street had expected this due to low oil prices and disappointing performance in gas trading. Related, Saudi Arabia said Gross domestic product declined by 4.5 percent A year ago it had cut oil production.

Samsung has made a comeback in the global market of computer chips. The South Korean electronics giant made a report 262 percent increase in profits quarter-on-quarter, mainly on better sales of memory chips. This is good news for an industry that has faced a glut of inventory. In other chip news, Nvidia may reportedly Cancel AI chip orders worth $5 billion According to the Wall Street Journal, it is for Chinese customers due to US export controls.

X is now worth just $19 billion. The social network yesterday gave stock grants to employees at a valuation that was about 55 percent less than the $44 billion paid for the company by Elon Musk last year. There appears to have been a disruption in business since then, although Musk promised employees last week that X is on its way to becoming a super-app.

And then there were three (labor agreements)

General Motors struck a tentative deal with the UAW yesterday, the last of Detroit’s three major automakers to do so after weeks of punitive strikes that have cost the companies billions in losses.

These deals are seen as vindication of the UAW’s bare-knuckle campaign. But they will also test whether the Big Three have put themselves in financial harm’s way at a crucial time for their industry.

The UAW bets big on an unusual strategy to win concessions Because it tried to re-establish the power of organized labor, especially in the automotive sector. (Ford, GM and Stellantis workers represent only 146,000 of its 400,000 members.)

a cadre of outsidersAccording to The Wall Street Journal, thirty people, including three who had never worked on a factory floor, helped draft the union’s new strike rule book. This included targeting all three Detroit companies simultaneously, as well as expelling workers from selected factories.

It remains to be seen how much burden these deals will put on automakers. Industry executives have argued that they cannot afford to incur too many additional costs due to the shift to electric vehicles (even as demand for those types of cars and trucks has slowed). And rivals like Tesla and foreign-owned carmakers like Toyota, whose workers are not represented by the UAW, do not face those expenses — although the union has made clear it will no longer support those companies’ workforces. Planning to try to organize.

Auto executives and analysts say costs are manageable. GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said yesterday that the temporary agreement “reflects the team’s contributions, while also enabling us to continue investing in our future and providing good jobs in America.” Steve Patton, head of mobility sector at consulting firm EY The leader of , told The Times, “I’m quite sure the deal would not have been signed if they were not confident they could remain competitive.”

• In related news, Stellantis says UAW strike came at a cost $3.2 billion in revenue That was offset by better-than-expected sales in the third quarter.

Apple Watch is at risk of a legal battle

A long-running legal challenge against Apple may suddenly emerge as a potential disruption to one of its best-selling gadgets, the Apple Watch.

Last week, the International Trade Commission, an independent non-partisan agency, ruled against Apple in a patent infringement case brought by medical technology company Masimo and an affiliated business, Cercor Laboratories. These companies are known for their pulse oximeter technology for monitoring blood flow; Apple introduced its first watch with this feature in 2020.

This decision could lead to an import ban on Apple watches and an order to stop sales from December 26.

Peter Coy of The Times writes:

Both parties agreed that Apple sought a meeting with Masimo when it was exploring adding pulse oximetry to the Apple Watch. Apple signed a confidentiality agreement. A meeting was held in 2013. On this point, stories vary. Joe Kiani, an electrical engineer who founded Masimo in 1989 and remains its chief executive, told me on Friday that Apple had decided to form a joint venture to create Masimo, or Masimo, rather than paying for a license to use the technology. Have decided to buy Cercocor or both. Decided to make “strategic appointments” of key employees. Apple says it concluded that Masimo’s technology was not suitable for a consumer device, so it moved in a different direction. (Though of course it did hire those key Masimo employees.)

The fight is not over yet as the companies are fighting in other courts. Apple says it respects other companies’ intellectual property, and it accuses Massimo of pursuing litigation instead of innovating. The tech giant can appeal against the ITC order.

Kiani tells Peter that his campaign has a larger purpose: “It’s to get Apple to change its ways.”

New York City legal chief returns to private practice

After nearly 20 months as chief counsel to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Brendan McGuire is returning to law firm WilmerHale as a partner, The Times’s William Rashbaum writes for DealBook.

McGuire, who oversaw terrorism and public corruption cases as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan nearly a decade ago, said he tapped top city officials to help clients solve their complex legal and policy problems. Plan to use your experience as one of the.

McGuire served as the mayor’s top legal advisor. During his tenure, he expanded the role – which normally involved advising on matters involving City Hall – to include overseeing a portfolio of agencies that in the past reported to a deputy mayor. The issues he focused on included some of New York’s biggest challenges, from mental illness to the migrant crisis.

Katherine Wild, CEO of the Wall Street-backed Partnership for New York City, praised McGuire’s work at City Hall. “Brandon took on the role of senior counsel to a new administration that was not bound by the legal and ethical constraints of City Hall and guided them through a series of conflicts and difficult issues,” he said.

The work is based on McGuire’s years as a top prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, Where he helped convict Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, a Somali pirate, and more than half a dozen former elected city and state officials. (That work continued his family’s long tenure in law enforcement: He is the son of a New York City police commissioner and the grandson of an NYPD inspector.)

After first leaving public service, McGuire worked as a partner in WilmerHale’s white-collar practice.

When asked what his work meant for Adams apart from his previous experience as a prosecutor, As well as his previous stint in private practice, McGuire cited the breadth of the challenges he faces – and “the broad scope of tools he can bring to address them.”

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deal

• data storage company Western Digital said it would split itself into two after a failed merger with Japanese semiconductor maker Kioxia. (FT)

• Jack Cooper, a privately held trucking company, is reportedly working on a Takeover bid for Yellow, a rival whose bankruptcy could cause losses to the federal government. (Reuters)

• The Spanish government is considering investing in Telefónica To compete with Saudi Telecom, which has agreed to buy a 10 percent stake in the wireless giant. (Bloomberg)

Policy

best among the rest

• FIFA banned former Spanish football federation chief Luis Rubiales from the game for three years after he forcibly kissed a player after the Women’s World Cup final in August. (NYT)

• “The Apple-Picking Apocalypse of Upstate New York” (NYT)

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