A social worker, nurse, and librarian will help determine SBF’s fate in FTX trial
An unemployed social worker. A librarian. A train conductor.
These are among the people who will determine if FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is innocent or guilty of crimes connected to the largest crypto collapse in US history.
Twelve New Yorkers were selected this week as jurors in the criminal trial of the 31-year-old entrepreneur. Bankman-Fried is accused of embezzling billions in FTX customer funds, committing money laundering, and misleading investors and lenders.
Most of these jurors (nine) are women. They range in age from early 30s to late 60s. Some are highly educated, and some do have business backgrounds.
One such person is a 68-year-old retired investment banker who previously worked for Salomon Brothers and Berkshire Hathaway.
Others are a 55-year-old special education teacher who previously worked in commercial lending, a 43-year-old woman who works in IT for Bloomberg, and a 53-year-old woman who previously worked in nonprofits managing fundraisers.
But most have no connections to the world of finance, or crypto for that matter.
The jurors also include include a 39-year-old woman who works as a physician assistant in internal medicine, a woman in her early 30s who is a nurse in long-term pediatric care, and a 40-year-old unemployed social worker.
There is also a 50-year-old Metro North train conductor, a 47-year-old high school librarian, a 65-year-old retired corrections officer, and a 61-year-old man who works in vehicle maintenance for the US Postal Service.
Prosecutors are trying to use language and imagery that might appeal to a jury with a broad set of interests, with talk of a $30 million Bahamas penthouse where Bankman-Fried and his inner circle worked as well as Bankman Fried’s connections to celebrities like Tom Brady.
The former NFL quarterback was paid $55 million to promote FTX.
The defense also has done the same.
"It’s not a crime to try to get Tom Brady to go on ads for your company," Bankman-Fried's attorney Mark Cohen said Wednesday.
Bankman-Fried has kept an eye on the jury during proceedings, and some jury members have done the same with him.
One, the 47-year-old high school librarian for the Department of Education, raised her eyebrows at Bankman-Fried while the Brady FTX commercials were playing.
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