FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried leaves Manhattan federal court in New York, Thursday, Feb. 16
Sam Bankman-Fried.
  • Sam Bankman-Fried is struggling to defend himself on the witness stand.
  • He claims that Alameda Research, his crypto hedge fund, was treated the same as everyone else on FTX, his now-collapsed crypto exchange.
  • Prosecutors have plenty of evidence that's simply not true.

As with any secret relationship, the stuff going on behind closed doors between FTX and Alameda Research was hard to explain and probably inappropriate.

As Sam Bankman-Fried testifies on the witness stand in his criminal case, he has struggled to get past a core, key contradiction at the heart of his legal defense.