Listening to the competing attorneys, it’s not hard to see where the defense’s key issues might be. Though the burden of proof is on the prosecution, the DOJ does have a very simple narrative: Bankman-Fried knowingly and willingly misappropriated customer funds, lied about it, spent the funds on all sorts of things and then tried to mislead people when things fell apart. Roos spent the first few hours of his argument repeating the phrase, “where did the money go, what happened and who’s responsible” – the three questions he wants jurors to ask themselves when they deliberate. He used quotes from the witnesses and court exhibits to illustrate the point, and kept mentioning the missing billions.
