The worlds of politics and finance duked it out for attention in lower Manhattan Tuesday as the multi-billion fraud trial of crypto-king Sam Bankman-Fried began just a block away from a court where the mortgage-fraud case against Donald Trump entered its second day.
Both cases attracted their own media spectacles, with dozens of TV crews and satellite truck aerials sprouting up like trees around federal court and state supreme court in Manhattan.
Passersby gawked at the scene as Trump arrived at Manhattan’s New York state court for the second day of his civil trial on charges brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James that he illegally inflated the value of his real estate assets in order to obtain mortgage financing.
“Her numbers are fraudulent — she’s a fraud,” the 77-year-old Trump said as he walked up the New York State Supreme Court steps made famous in innumerable films and episodes of “Law & Order.” “This case should be dismissed.”
Around the corner, at the entrance to the Daniel Patrick Moynihan federal courthouse, the financial press gathered waiting for the arrival of lawyers and relatives of Bankman-Fried, whose criminal trial for his role in the collapse of FTX was set to begin Tuesday morning with jury selection.
Bankman-Fried, 31, arrived at court from a federal lockup where he has been held since August, when the federal judge presiding over the case revoked his $250 million bond for allegedly trying to influence witnesses set to testify against him. He’s charged with looting customer deposits on his trading platform and using the funds to make big propriety trades and political donations, among other things. He has pleaded not guilty.
Bankman-Fried faces decades behind bars if convicted in the stunning demise of the crypto-trading platform he created in which billions of customer deposits vanished.
Amid a backdrop of elderly Chinese immigrants doing tai chi in a neighboring park, lawyers scurrying to other trials and people lining up to exchange vows at the city’s marriage bureau, helicopters buzzed overhead as police and court officers lined the streets in a show of high security.
Even the Naked Cowboy showed up.
“I’m here for Trump,” he said before breaking into a song praising the former president. “I’ll go where Trump goes. He’s been a cash cow for me and he’s in line with what I believe in.”
As for Bankman-Fried, the singer, whose real name is Robert John Burck, drew a blank.
“Who is the other fella you mentioned?” he asked.
Not to be outdone, lawyers for singer Joe Jonas and actress Sophie Turner were due in the same court as Bankman-Fried Tuesday for arguments in the international child custody battle the celebrity couple have been waging amid their high-profile divorce.
Not all were impressed.
“As if getting around Manhattan wasn’t bad enough on a normal day,” barked a construction worker pushing his way through the crowds.
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