The trial of cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried took a strange turn yesterday when prosecutors compared his defense tactics to the classic Jim Carrey movie Dumb and Dumber.
Bankman-Fried is currently on trial for tax evasion charges related to cryptocurrency investments he made between 2017 and 2018. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Bankman-Fried’s legal team has maintained that the charges against their client are baseless since he had consulted with an expert on the relevant tax laws. The defense has also suggested that the prosecutors are not adequately familiar with cryptocurrency taxation and how it works.
In response, prosecutors likened this defense to the argument presented by Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne in the 1994 movie Dumb and Dumber. In the film, the two protagonists argue that their theft of a valuable briefcase is justified because they “couldn’t have known” it was valuable.
The analogy did not sit well with Bankman-Fried, who shook his head and sighed audibly in response. His lawyer, Mark Davies, argued that such a comparison was unwarranted, saying that it was “insulting” and “demeaning” to his client.
Davies went on to explain that Bankman-Fried had consulted with a cryptocurrency tax expert prior to investing, and that the prosecutors were attempting to make a “simplistic and uninformed” comparison.
The trial has been ongoing for five days, and is expected to last another two weeks. It remains to be seen how the jury will respond to the prosecutors’ analogy, and whether or not Bankman-Fried will be found guilty. Either way, the case has certainly been an interesting one, with the comparison to Dumb and Dumber adding an unexpected twist.
