A retired Salomon Brothers investment banker, a pediatric nurse and a special education teacher are on the jury that will decide whether FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried is guilty of a multibillion-dollar fraud.
(Bloomberg) — A retired Salomon Brothers investment banker, a pediatric nurse and a special education teacher are on the jury that will decide whether FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried is guilty of a multibillion-dollar fraud.
Nine women and three men were empaneled as jurors on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, a day after the selection process began. Six alternates were also sworn in. Opening statements in the trial began Wednesday afternoon.
Bankman-Fried is accused of using billions of dollars in customer deposits at FTX for speculative trading at the cryptocurrency exchange’s affiliated hedge fund, Alameda Research, as well as for luxury real estate and for political contributions. He has pleaded not guilty.
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Some members of the jury pool with experience with the crypto industry were excused from serving. These included a managing director at tech-focused private equity firm Insight Venture Partners, which invested in FTX. Another excused juror had said he couldn’t be impartial because he had become “fairly negative about crypto” over the past year.
Prospective jurors for federal trials in Manhattan are chosen at random from a pool of people who are registered to vote in Manhattan and the Bronx as well as Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties.
These are the 12 jurors who have been selected to determine Bankman-Fried’s fate:
- A man, 68, retired after working as an investment banker at Salomon Brothers, which became part of Citigroup Inc. in 1998. He earned his MBA at Stanford University, where Bankman-Fried’s parents are both law professors.
- A woman, 39, working as a physician assistant and who was once a medical missionary in the Dominican Republic. She lives with her husband, who is a web developer.
- A woman, 40, an unemployed social worker who earned an undergraduate degree at Princeton University and went to grad school at Columbia University and City University of New York.
- A woman, 50, working as a Metro North train conductor. She has five children, two of whom were previously convicted of crimes.
- A woman, 33, who went to State University of New York, Binghamton, and is now working as pediatric nurse in Westchester County.
- A man, 59, who told the judge he has a non-refundable plane ticket to visit his daughter at college in California on Friday. He didn’t say what he did for work, but he said his company is being sued by another company.
- A woman, 38, a Duke University graduate who sits on the board of a non-profit. She’s divorced with two children and lives with her partner, who’s a New York University professor.
- A woman working for a school in the Bronx. She earned graduate degrees from the University of Buffalo and Syracuse University and is living with her older sister and looking after her mother. She has a British shorthair cat.
- A woman, 65, a retired corrections officer married to a retired construction worker with three grown children. She’s never served on a jury before.
- A man, 61, a US Postal Service worker who previously served on a jury in a criminal case.
- A woman, working in advertising. She’s divorced with an 18-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son.
- A woman, 55, working as a special education teacher in Rockland County. A native of Bermuda, she earned degrees at New York University and Seton Hall University. She’s divorced with three children.
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–With assistance from Ava Benny-Morrison.
(Corrects story published Oct. 4 to fix characterization of Insight Venture Partners in fourth paragraph.)
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