A third member of Sam Bankman-Fried’s inner circle admits to criminal wrongdoing

The SBF trial is in the same mode as Bartolo Colón when he steps up to the plate – full swing. Yesterday, the jury heard testimony from Nishad Singh, FTX’s former director of engineering and a member of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle.

The biggest takeaway: Singh admitted to knowingly committing crimes alongside the 31-year-old SBF, making him the third witness to do so after Gary Wang (an FTX co-founder) and Caroline Ellison (SBF’s ex-girlfriend and former CEO of Alameda). All three have agreed to plea deals.

Singh also discussed what he framed as excessive and flashy spending by FTX on investments, sponsorships, and celebrities. And he brought receipts.

• According to spreadsheets of investments made in 2021, FTX invested $1 billion in bitcoin mining firm Genesis, $499 million in AI startup Anthropic, and $200 million in investment firm K5.
• The jury was also presented with a separate spreadsheet of celebrity sponsorship deals. It included $205 million for the naming rights to FTX arena in Miami, $150 million to Major League Baseball, $50 million to Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen, $28.5 million to Steph Curry, and $10 million to Larry David. In total, these deals amounted to $1.13 billion.

👀 Looking ahead… The entire trial is expected to last around six weeks soup-to-nuts, putting its expected end-date somewhere in mid-November. Still ahead? Potential testimony from Bankman-Fried himself (but only if he can get his adderall).