lawyers for Sam bankman freed in his fraud trial were seen leaving a New York courthouse on Thursday after the FDX founder finally took to the stand to defend himself in his testimony to the judge without the jury bankman freed sought to distance himself from responsibility for his now bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange by pointing fingers at FTX lawyers the 31-year-old former billionaire responded confidently to questions from the defense side bankman freed said ftxs lawyers were involved in crafting its document retention policies and setting up a system under which the company's customers deposited their funds into an account at his hedge fund alamaa he said they also took part in crafting loans that he and other Executives took from alamaa but on cross-examination by prosecutors he often struggled to point to specific conversations in which lawyers approved his actions US District Jud judge Lewis Kaplan said several of bankman Freed's responses did not directly answer prosecutors questions saying quote the witness has what I'll simply call an interesting way of responding to questions Kaplan had ordered bankman free to give testimony without juror's present so he could determine which portions of it if any would be admissible as evidence prosecutors have said bankman freed should not be allowed to suggest that the lawyer's involvement in decision making showed that he lacked Criminal inent bankman freed is accused of stealing billions of dollars from customers he has insisted he acted in good faith while running FTX and has pleaded not guilty to seven charges of Fraud and conspiracy bankman freed is expected to testify to the jury on Friday Kaplan said he would decide then whether jurors could hear his testimony about lawyers involvement
