Pleading not guilty is not perjury. For starters, it isn’t a claim of innocence, merely a demand that the prosecutors put up or shut up. Second, perjury has a specific definition, which includes that a material, false statement was made under a legally valid oath or its equivalent.
SBF testified under oath in his own defense at trial. He was not obliged to testify, and the jury could not draw a negative inference from his decision not to. In fact, most US defendants do not testify.
If he made a material, false statement with knowledge of its falsity under oath at trial, then he committed perjury. Testifying under oath that you “don’t remember X” when you know you actually do is perjury (assuming that X is material, a rather low bar to meet).
Example (quoting the Government’s sentencing memo):
Bankman-Fried’s minimization and false explanations concerning such conduct was pervasive during his testimony. As one example, he claimed that he first learned that Alameda had a roughly $8 billion fiat liability to FTX in October 2022. (Tr. 2523-24). That was a lie, as is evidenced by the testimony of Yedidia, Ellison, Wang, and Singh, all of whom testified that they discussed Alameda’s fiat liability to FTX with Bankman-Fried months earlier. (Tr. 167, 173-74, 436-37, 439-40, 619-20, 769-71, 1346, 1348, 1359; GX-50). The documentary evidence also proved that Bankman-Fried was not telling the truth during his testimony. Government Exhibit 50, for example, a June 2022 spreadsheet which was viewed by the defendant, showed a roughly $11 billion fiat liability owed by Alameda to FTX. (GX-50).
Pleading not guilty is not perjury. For starters, it isn’t a claim of innocence, merely a demand that the prosecutors put up or shut up. Second, perjury has a specific definition, which includes that a material, false statement was made under a legally valid oath or its equivalent.
SBF testified under oath in his own defense at trial. He was not obliged to testify, and the jury could not draw a negative inference from his decision not to. In fact, most US defendants do not testify.
If he made a material, false statement with knowledge of its falsity under oath at trial, then he committed perjury. Testifying under oath that you “don’t remember X” when you know you actually do is perjury (assuming that X is material, a rather low bar to meet).
Example (quoting the Government’s sentencing memo):