> Sassoon brought out the terms of service Bankman-Fried had testified to and asked him to point out where in the agreement it specified that FTX was permitted

> Sassoon brought out the terms of service Bankman-Fried had testified to and asked him to point out where in the agreement it specified that FTX was permitted to spend customer funds. The court sat in absolute silence for more than a minute... Finally, Bankman-Fried said, “I am not a lawyer” and definitely said a lot of words, none of which made much sense. Sasson asked the same question again, drawing an objection from Cohen, which Kaplan overruled — because Bankman-Fried had not answered her question. The line Bankman-Fried eventually pointed to was that funds were “held and / or transferred by provider.” Check > Bankman-Fried’s defense, in the direct testimony, was trying to put blame on the lawyers: FTX chief regulatory officer Dan Friedberg... A significant thrust of questions was about a bank account controlled by Alameda Research that did not bear Alameda’s name; it was instead called North Dimension, it came into existence around 2020 — that is, while Bankman-Fried was still Alameda’s CEO — and it was where FTX customers were told to wire their funds. Bankman-Fried said that the North Dimension bank account was all Friedberg’s idea. Sassoon asked if Bankman-Fried, as Friedberg’s boss, had given him any direction, or if Friedberg just popped ideas across Bankman-Fried’s desk. The word-salad began again, interrupted only by the judge saying things like “So I take it the answer is you don’t remember; is that about it?” or “Listen to the question and answer the question directly.” ... Then Sassoon did what I had been waiting for: pointed out that Bankman-Fried had been the one who hired Friedberg in 2020. She asked if he’d been hesitant to hire a general counsel. He said he had been hesitant to hire the wrong general counsel — “I did want a general counsel who was comfortable with reasonable risks.” Sassoon then asked if Bankman-Fried was aware of Friedberg’s history of working at a company that had an insider trading scandal? (The company in question, by the way, is UltimateBet.) That there had been a criminal scandal? “Were you aware that Dan Friedberg used illegal narcotics with your employees?” Checkmate