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Sam Bankman-Fried- Case Archive
Federal Criminal Trialtrial-daytrial-daySamuel RaymondNicolas RoosDavid F. LisnerTareq MoradNishad SinghdirectcrossredirectDay 9 - October 16, 2023Tareq Morad described funding his FTX account, his expectations for deposited assets, and a failed withdrawal. Nishad Singh admitted criminal conduct and testified about Alameda's account privileges, the customer-fund deficit, backdated entries, and public assurances. The court declined a medication-related adjournment request.
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Day 9 - October 16, 2023

Morad's FTX Account, Singh's Testimony, and Medication Ruling

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan
8Proceedings
3Pages
2Witnesses
2,459Lines
1Sidebars
Day 9 of 19
Appearing:
Samuel Raymond Nicolas Roos David F. Lisner Tareq Morad Nishad Singh

Tareq Morad described funding his FTX account, his expectations for deposited assets, and a failed withdrawal. Nishad Singh admitted criminal conduct and testified about Alameda's account privileges, the customer-fund deficit, backdated entries, and public assurances. The court declined a medication-related adjournment request.

Full day summary

Tareq Morad testified that he funded his FTX account through wire instructions naming North Dimension Inc. as the beneficiary. He said he regarded the displayed balance as his money, did not know of or agree to others borrowing his assets, and felt reassured by a Bankman-Fried post about withdrawals before his own withdrawal attempt failed. On cross-examination, Morad agreed that market losses reduced his balance, could not identify how his expectation against lending had developed, and acknowledged that he did not read the terms of service. Nishad Singh admitted participating in fraud, money laundering, and campaign-finance violations while serving as FTX's head of engineering. He testified about Alameda's allow-negative feature, its exemption from liquidation, and learning that Alameda was borrowing $13 billion from FTX, much of which he understood to be customer funds. Singh also described refusing a request to backdate locked Serum transfers for collateral reporting, while admitting that he made other backdated entries that increased FTX's stated 2021 revenue. He testified that Bankman-Fried's public statements that FTX was fine and could cover client holdings were false based on financial discussions in which Bankman-Fried participated. After the jury left, the defense requested an adjournment over the defendant's access to medication. The court declined, citing the absence of current competent medical evidence about the need for the medication or the effects of not receiving it, and said the trial would proceed.

1. Tareq Morad — Direct/Cross/Redirect

Tareq Morad testified about wiring roughly $500,000 to fund an FTX account, his expectations for control of the assets, and his unsuccessful withdrawal attempt. Cross-examination addressed market losses, the basis for those expectations, and his failure to read the terms of service before a brief redirect and his excusal.

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Procedural
Pretrial Jury-Instruction and Evidentiary Matters
16 lines
sidebar
Defendant’s Missed Adderall Dose
21 lines

Defense counsel reported that the defendant had not received his extended-dose Adderall and discussed efforts to reach officials handling the issue.

Direct
Tareq Morad — Direct Tareq Morad Samuel Raymond
160 lines

Tareq Morad traced roughly $500,000 in FTX funding through North Dimension, described his expectations that deposits remained under his control, and testified that he relied on a withdrawal assurance before an unsuccessful attempt to recover a documented $257,948.53 balance.

Cross
Tareq Morad — Cross Tareq Morad David F. Lisner
46 lines

Morad acknowledged prior cryptocurrency-exchange experience, market-driven account losses, and that he had not read FTX's terms, while identifying the Twitter withdrawal assurance as his principal recalled basis for believing his deposited money was present.

Redirect
Tareq Morad — Redirect Tareq Morad Samuel Raymond
14 lines

Morad placed his opportunity to review FTX's terms of service at account signup, around March 31 or April 1, 2021.

Highlights

Tareq Morad — Directevidence eventGovernment Exhibit 540, Morad's completed personal wire transfer, was admitted without objection and published; the document listed Silvergate Bank as the destination bank and North Dimension Inc. as beneficiary.Tareq Morad — Direct“I presumed that the balances that were listed there was my money that I had available to withdraw, trade, or do whatever it was of my choice.”— Tareq MoradMorad stated his understanding that the displayed account balance remained under his control and available for withdrawal or trading.Tareq Morad — Directtestimony highlightMorad recalled a Bankman-Fried tweet assuring customers that funds were present and withdrawals would be covered. He said the message relieved him, he did not immediately withdraw, and his withdrawal attempt the following day failed.

2. Nishad Singh — Direct (Part 1)

Nishad Singh’s Day 9 direct examination addressed Alameda’s use of FTX customer funds, backdated accounting entries, political donations made in his name, and public assurances during the November withdrawal crisis.

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Direct
Nishad Singh — Direct Nishad Singh Nicolas Roos
2163 lines

Nishad Singh admitted his own crimes and described Alameda's special account privileges, the multibillion-dollar customer-fund shortfall, backdated financial entries, political donations made in his name, and public assurances during FTX's November 2022 collapse.

Highlights

Nishad Singh — DirectadmissionSingh admitted committing fraud, money laundering, and campaign-finance violations, named four associates, and testified that he continued approving transactions after learning in September 2022 of what he believed was an $8 billion customer-fund deficit.Nishad Singh — Direct“I defrauded customers, investors, I participated in money laundering, and I violated campaign finance laws.”— Nishad SinghSingh opened his direct examination with an explicit admission of the categories of crimes he committed at FTX.Nishad Singh — Directtestimony highlightSingh explained that he wrote the first version of Alameda's allow-negative feature under Gary and Sam's direction and testified that later changes permitted unlimited negative balances and exemption from liquidation, allowing withdrawals that he said came from other customers.Nishad Singh — Directtestimony highlightSingh testified that Bankman-Fried asked him to backdate transfers of locked Serum so Alameda would appear to have held more collateral; Singh said he understood the intended recipient of the data to be the CFTC and refused to perform the transaction.Nishad Singh — Direct“It felt wrong. I mean, I was fine giving up my personal assets. I'd taken on debts and given up my assets for the company countless times. But I understood the purpose of this exercise to be, you know, to fool a US regulator and to fool employees of the company, and I wasn't comfortable with that.”— Nishad SinghSingh explained why he refused Bankman-Fried's request to backdate collateral transfers.Nishad Singh — Directtestimony highlightSingh recounted learning in a Signal discussion that Alameda was borrowing $13 billion from FTX, said the borrowing had to consist largely of customer funds, and described Bankman-Fried as appearing unsurprised.Nishad Singh — DirectadmissionSingh admitted making and backdating monthly staking-fee transfers that increased FTX's stated 2021 revenue by about $50 million and moved the reported total from below to above $1 billion, testifying that Bankman-Fried told him to do it.Nishad Singh — Directtestimony highlightSingh described objecting to proposed public claims that FTX was solvent or well capitalized, then testified that Bankman-Fried's statements that FTX was fine and could cover all client holdings were false based on the financial discussions in which Bankman-Fried participated.Nishad Singh — Direct“FTX did not have enough to cover client holdings. That was the sense in which it was not fine.”— Nishad SinghSingh directly rejected the accuracy of Bankman-Fried's November 7 public assurance about client holdings.

3. Defendant Medication Access and Post-Testimony Matters

After the jury was dismissed for the day, the court declined the defense’s request to adjourn the trial over the defendant’s access to a midday Adderall dose and requested evidence concerning a Bureau of Prisons medication evaluation.

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Procedural
Defendant Medication Access and Post-Testimony Matters
37 lines

The court declined the defense's request to adjourn until extended-release Adderall became available, citing the lack of current competent medical evidence and its limited authority over medication for a defendant in Bureau of Prisons custody.

Procedural
Sealed Proceedings (Pages 1479–1484)
2 lines

Highlights

Defendant Medication Access and Post-Testimony MattersrulingThe court declined to adjourn and said the trial would proceed because it lacked current competent medical evidence about the defendant's need for the medication or the effects of not receiving it.Defendant Medication Access and Post-Testimony Matters“And what I have is lawyers who I'm sure in good faith believe what they're saying, but the last I heard from a physician was dated August 12th, and not only is that true, but I don't even have a medical opinion that he needs it now, or what the effect of not taking it is, and we're going to proceed.”— Lewis A. KaplanThe court identified the absence of current medical support as the basis for continuing the trial.
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