Understanding the $65B Line of Credit: Key Testimony in SBF Trial

• Alameda’s $65 billion line of credit on FTX is a “devastating fact for the defense,” according to Brian Klein.
• Sam Bankman-Fried’s defense attempted to justify the amount and claimed that SBF thought it was “reasonable” for Alameda to borrow.
• Klein stated that even if the jury didn’t remember all the financial terms, they would remember the $65 billion.

In the ongoing trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX, Gary Wang, former CTO, revealed that Alameda Research has a $65 billion line of credit on FTX. Crypto journalist Laura Shin hosted Sam Enzer, partner at Cahill Gordon and Reindel, and Brian Klein, partner at Waymaker, to discuss Wang’s testimony and how it could damage the defense.

Wang’s testimony revealed to the court that Bankman-Fried, Nashad Singh, Caroline Ellison, and Wang himself were involved in committing wire fraud. Wang said, “We gave special privileges to Alameda Research on FTX, which allowed it to withdraw unlimited amounts of funds from the platform, and we lied about this to the public.” Singh and Ellison are to testify against SBF in the trial.

Alameda had a $65 billion line of credit, according to Wang’s testimony. Klein addressed this amount and said, “These are eye-opening amounts of money.” Moreover, he explained that the jury wouldn’t be “able to relate to that” and said this is a “devastating fact for the defense.” Klein questioned if the defense would be able to counter this.

Enzer agreed with Klein and shared that the defense attempted to justify Bankman-Fried’s actions. The defense claimed that SBF thought it was “reasonable” for Alameda to borrow customer funds, and he believed there was enough collateral. However, Enzer said, “That’s a lot of money; that’s a lot of customer money.”

Shin wondered if the jury would be able to follow all the details of the technicalities; she shared that in the courtroom, there was “a long explication period,” where financial terms were explained to the jury, some of whom don’t have financial backgrounds. Shin said that they explained what a line of credit was, how it got coded, and the liquidation rules on the exchange.

Furthermore, Shin questioned whether the jury could understand it well, to which Klein responded, “The jury’s going to remember $65 billion.” Klein claimed that the jury might not remember the details, but they would remember the amount of money. Enzer agreed and added that the jury would remember that Wang started his testimony by admitting to the crimes.