The trial against Sam Bankman-Fried continued in Manhattan federal court Thursday when Can Sun, FTX's former general counsel, took the witness stand.
The prosecution presented a robust direct examination of the Yale-educated Sun, who served as general counsel for FTX from August 2021 through the exchange's collapse in November 2022.
Sun claimed he would have never knowingly approved of lending FTX customer money to sister company Alameda Research, believing FTX to have "received, safeguarded, and segregated" customer funds from other entities to keep them from being "misappropriated."
Referencing Bankman-Fried's congressional testimonies and social media posts, Sun said the disgraced "king of crypto" appeared to be "on a movement for a sensible, regulatory framework." Sun recalled how Bankman-Fried was "very much involved" in developing FTX's key principles, which included upholding market integrity and ensuring customer and investor protection.
"Without express authority from the customer, FTX had no right to access funds," Sun noted.
Sun's comments come one day after the prosecution presented a number of revealing direct messages Bankman-Fried sent to journalist, Kelsey Piper, including one that read: "fu-k regulators."
Sun went on to state he worked on completing updated terms of service for FTX in order to comply with Bahamian regulators.
The prosecution presented a number of provisions within the terms of service to the jury, including one which stated "title to your digital assets should at all time remain with you." Further on, the document stated, "nine of the digital assets in your account are the property of or shall be loaned to FTX."
When Sun learned Alameda Research had special privileges that prevented their
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