The Sam Bankman-Fried Trial: One Expert Witness

Sam Bankman-Fried’s defense team has officially named its sole proposed expert witness: PF2 Securities’ Joseph Pimbley. We don’t yet know how many other witnesses we may hear from – and, indeed, whether Bankman-Fried himself will testify.

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To clarify, the DOJ presented two types of witnesses. The majority were not “experts” on specific aspects of the case, but people who were directly involved in FTX as employees, customers or investors.

Prosecutors also had University of Notre Dame Professor Peter Easton as an expert witness. Easton’s testimony focused on financial flows, presenting various flow charts and diagrams illustrating his analysis – albeit in a somewhat super simplified manner.

Pimbley’s testimony looks to address similar financial concerns, although he seems to be more focused on allegations from various FTX insiders about the line of credit to Alameda and the size of funds the trading firm actually took from FTX.

Some diagrams in Pimbley’s disclosure statement also suggest he may speak to FTX’s actual balances.

Whether the jury finds this testimony compelling enough to cast reasonable doubt on Bankman-Fried’s alleged guilt remains to be seen.

While Pimbley may be able to poke logical holes in some details and allegations illustrated by the DOJ’s witnesses so far, it’ll be difficult to overcome the emotional impact of Bankman-Fried’s closest friends and former colleagues getting on the stand and saying they committed crimes with him.

What we’re expecting

Court is on break for another two days. However, defense lawyers have a deadline today to tell prosecutors and the court who their first few witnesses may be – at least those who may testify on Thursday, assuming the defense does indeed choose to bring a case. This list – like the prosecutors’ list of witnesses – may not be immediately released to the public.

CoinDesk asked a spokesperson for Bankman-Fried how many witnesses might testify but received no response by press time.

Of course, the big mystery is whether Bankman-Fried himself will testify, and as we wrote in yesterday’s newsletter, pretty much everyone seems to think he probably will.