Fordham Law Prof. Cheryl Bader is quoted in a Financial Times article describing how Sam Bankman-Fried’s “likeability” may have impacted the trial.
“I don’t think the results would have been any different, had he stayed off the witness stand,” says Cheryl Bader, a former federal prosecutor who is now associate professor of law at Fordham University
“The prosecution had already presented extremely damning evidence. They had testimony, texts, emails supporting that testimony of long, reflective conversations between Bankman-Fried and his closest associates.”
For all the legal accoutrements that adorn US criminal cases, a defendant’s testimony is often a high-stakes popularity contest played out in front of 12 ordinary Americans. That, says Bader, is the lesson reinforced by the FTX case. “Like a lot of life, if you are charismatic and a more attractive person, and [you are]seen as more credible and likeable, that yields rewards,” she notes.
Read “FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried failed ‘likeability’ test at trial” in the Financial Times.