Sam Bankman-Fried’s Defense Wants to Highlight ‘Inconsistent Statements’ by FTX Insiders Gary Wang, Nishad Singh

Sam Bankman-Fried’s defense team have asked Judge Lewis Kaplan to let them introduce proof of “inconsistent statements” from former FTX executives – and prosecution witnesses – Gary Wang and Nishad Singh.

The defense team zeroed in on what Wang and Singh said about stablecoin conversions and the “allow negative” feature that let Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research borrow essentially unlimited money from FTX. They will also home in on Singh’s “haziness” about June and July 2022 to federal officials prior to testifying on the stand.

The defense attorneys want to bring two FBI agents to the stand when they present their case to discuss their notes from their conversations with Singh and Wang. The notes show that certain comments the two former FTX executives made on the stand do not match the notes of their conversations from months before the trial begin.

“On October 21, Mr. Bankman-Fried’s counsel advised the Government that it would seek to introduce evidence of Mr. Wang’s and Mr. Singh’s prior inconsistent statements,” the defense filing said.

Wang testified during trial that he could not remember if he spoke to Alameda’s role as a market maker, which was not what he told investigators in November 2022, the letter said. He similarly did not remember telling investigators about stablecoin conversions being part of that market making function in December of last year.

Singh made inconsistent statements about how well he remembered the events of June and July 2022, the letter said. Similarly, he did not recall telling investigators if he said he felt OK about buying a house after the collapse of FTX in January.

“Mr. Wang’s and Mr. Singh’s denials of having made, or proclaimed inability to recall having made, the above-noted statements go to their credibility in the case,” the letter said.

Defense attorneys tried to pin Wang and Singh on these inconsistent statements during their cross examinations of the two former FTX executives, though they couldn’t get into detail on those statements at the time.