Ex-FTX Exec Nishad Singh Back in Court After Testifying about Sam Bankman-Fried's 'Excess' Spending

One of the prosecution's last star witnesses, Nishad Singh is set to testify in the SPF trial for his second day today. The former FTX executive told jurors yesterday that Beman freed used customer money for excess spending sprees. Emily, you were in court again, talk to us about what was happening. What did you find interesting during the first day of testimony? I thought that yesterday's testimony was among the most compelling that I've seen. We've had a few star witnesses, Gary Wong Caroline Ellison, uh Nishat Singh, these are all members of former members of Sam's inner circle. Um Nishan was interesting because he sort of seemed the most tortured. Um, you know, he really kind of obviously he's pleading guilty, he's pleading guilty to various crimes. He definitely took some responsibility, some poor decisions. But he also expressed throughout that, you know, there were these moments where he really was like wrestling with doubt where he brought it up with Sam where he sort of knew that something wrong was happening. He also kind of expressed this feeling that he sort of learned of certain things too late. So he kind of portrayed a very complex picture he also just had some like very, very strong statements. For example, he described himself as being blindsided and horrified. He said he was really betrayed. He said that, you know, he felt that he had been working towards something that he thought was a beautiful force for good and it turned out to be so evil. I mean, these were words that he used. So it was, it was, it was quite, quite compelling, quite strong, you know, uh the celebrity endorsements came up, the expense of real estate came up. But, you know, I think just underscored how the poor decisions of a few individuals managed to sort of vanish, you know, billions of dollars in value. Ultimately, this is a, a trial of Saman Man Fried here. How, how did Saman Manfried come across in Nasha uh Singh's testimony? I mean, what was the, what was the characterization of him? Well, I think, you know, basically all of these witnesses and, and I would definitely say this for Nasha. Sam comes off as kind of like the puppet master, right? You know, like these, he was, he was the one who was sort of orchestrating all of this and, you know, they were kind of just following along. I'd say that's generally how he sort of came off. There were a few moments in the testimony today where, you know, Nasha kind of towards the end expressed his concerns about what was going on and his, you know his horror, what was going on. And he described Sam as seeing in one, in one instance, he described Sam as being annoyed and angry. Um So yeah, I would say that this is, things are not looking great for Sam Beckman Fried right now. You know, we've previously heard that the judge is maybe seeming a little bit annoyed. Is that still, is that still happening? What's the judge's mood like? Uh what's the interaction like between the judge and the defense? Well, so this was the prosecution yesterday. So that tends to be a little bit more smoothly. Most of the tension that I've observed has actually been between the judge and the defense. Although I will say that I'm starting to kind of see why the judge does things the way he does. There's clearly a logic behind it, not defending the way he's doing it. But, you know, I think he really wants to keep things moving along. There's been a lot of repetition in the trial and I think he just doesn't want to bore the jury and he wants them to stay engaged. There was a very actually amusing moment yesterday where they were talking about the Tutta collapse and the judge was like, what exactly is an algorithmic stable coin? It was, well, don't we all want to know? You know, and then he kind of just kind of kept asking the shot and then Dean was just a little bit like didn't know how to answer. So, I think, you know, the judge himself is dealing with these, like, very technical kind of opaque topics that even in the world of crypto. I mean, you know, a lot of, not many people can explain exactly what happened with Tutta. Exactly how that algorithm was supposed to work and that came up in the trial. I'll, I'll be willing to testify. Everyone's watching me. I'll serve as a witness. That's my favorite topic. Oh, gosh. All right, Lawrence. Well, we'll, we'll just have to wait and see if you get that phone call to take the witness. I'm waiting guys sitting on the phone like a 16 year old waiting for, for a date. We believe you have to start your own algorithmic stablecoin Lawrence. And then you can be uh called into court to explain how it works. I've got plenty of names for one, Emily. Thanks so much for giving us that update.