David F. Lisner conducted defense cross-examinations that tested investor and customer diligence and pressed the government's accounting expert on the scope and assumptions of his fund-tracing analysis. His most developed examination challenged which accounts and liabilities were included and how negative Alameda balances and Genesis payments were classified.
DefenseCohen & Gresser, LLP
David F. Lisner
Trial counsel who represented Samuel Bankman-Fried in his 2023 federal criminal case.
AppearedFederal Criminal Trial
340 lines·12 proceedings
About
David F. Lisner conducted the defense cross-examination of Paradigm co-founder Kungyu Matthew Huang on Day 3. He questioned Huang about Paradigm's diligence and its known concerns over FTX's lack of a board.
On Day 9, Lisner tested Tareq Morad's prior cryptocurrency-exchange experience, market-driven account losses, failure to read FTX's terms, and reliance on a withdrawal assurance. On Day 12, he questioned Robert Boroujerdi about related-party arrangements identified during Third Point's diligence; Boroujerdi could not say whether those transaction partners technically qualified as related parties.
His most detailed examination concerned accounting expert Peter Douglas Easton on Day 11. Lisner challenged Easton's selection of accounts and tracing assumptions, eliciting that balance figures depended on scope, that uncertainty remained over Genesis payments, and that one Alameda balance chart included an FTX liability. On recross, he used a hypothetical outside Bitcoin deposit to test how Easton's method classified a payment from a still-negative Alameda balance; Easton answered that the method continued to treat such a payment as drawing on customer funds.
Trial Record (12)
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