Criminal Defense Lawyer Says SBF Testimony May Land Him Higher Sentence

According to a prominent crypto criminal defense lawyer, FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) could face a higher prison sentence after his testimony last week.

FTX’s disgraced founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, faces a potentially higher prison sentence after taking to the court stand, according to crypto criminal defense lawyer Carlo D’Angelo. The former FTX CEO was in court last week to present testimony on the collapse of his once $40 billion empire. 

During the court hearing, SBF, as he is more popularly known, said, among other things, that he believed it was legal to use FTX customer funds to invest in sister company Alameda Research. Sam Bankman-Fried also shifted some of the blame for FTX’s failure to legal advice he received while running the company.

The next step in SBF’s case is cross-examination by U.S. government prosecutors, a process that Carlo D’Angelo expects to be thorough and methodical after last week’s testimony. During cross-examination, the opposing party questions a witness to obtain further details on an earlier testimony.

In SBF’s case, attorney Carlo D’Angelo argues that the abundance of evidence against SBF, including his “pre-trial comments, social media posts, and Twitter Spaces,” provides much basis for the prosecutors to make the right verdict. Even more pertinent, SBF’s testimony could negatively impact his sentence, especially if convicted by the judge.

Citing the 18 U.S. Code § 3553, attorney Carlo D’Angelo suggested that in SBF’s case, he could face a higher sentence if the judge concludes that he intentionally tried to mislead the court by providing inaccurate testimony. If such an outcome plays out, then the former FTX CEO may have done himself more harm than good by testifying in his case.

⚖️My thoughts on SBF Testifying

Prosecutors had all weekend to review SBF’s testimony & prepare their cross examination. I expect the government’s cross will be thorough and methodical— especially given all of receipts they have of SBFs pretrial comments, social media posts and…

— Carlo⚖️.eth (@DeFiDefenseLaw) October 30, 2023

SBF Testimony Also Affects Appeal Chances

The seasoned lawyer further noted that in the case of conviction, Sam Bankman-Fried would have a slimmer chance of securing an appeal based on his recent testimony. More precisely, the FTX founder cannot file for an appeal based on a lack of sufficient evidence.

Referring to a 1995 court precedent involving the United States v. Aulicino, attorney Carlo D’Angelo noted that “a defendant who testifies in their case “waives [the] right to have sufficiency assessed on the basis of the government’s presentation alone.”

It is noteworthy that Sam Bankman-Fried’s legal camp likely took the implications into consideration before allowing him to testify. Ideally, the hope would be that the former FTX CEO’s comments would lighten his sentence or potentially swerve the court from pronouncing him guilty.