‘Maximize utility’
In addition to Gary Wang and Nishad Singh, Ellison was a key lieutenant in Bankman-Fried’s crypto conglomerate. However, having dated Bankman-Fried on and off since the fall of 2018, she had arguably a more privileged window into the FTX founder’s mind.
On Tuesday, she testified that Bankman-Fried had at one point told her that he gave himself a 5% chance “he would become president someday,” hinting at his alleged egotism. “When you say ‘president,’ what are you referring to?” asked Danielle Sassoon, the prosecutor questioning her. “Of the United States,” responded Ellison.
On Wednesday, Ellison gave the jurors a further glimpse into Bankman-Fried’s potential motivations for allegedly committing fraud. Shortly after the lunch break, she said that Bankman-Fried was a utilitarian, meaning that “he thought the only moral value that mattered was whatever would maximize utility,” which she explained as “essentially trying to create the greatest good for the greatest number of people or beings.”
And as opposed to other utilitarians, Bankman-Fried saw that “rules like ‘don’t lie’ or ‘don’t steal’ didn’t fit into that framework,” she said, adding that his views slowly influenced hers.
“When I started working at Alameda,” she testified, “I don’t think I would have believed [it] if you told me that a few years later I would be sending false balance sheets to our lenders or taking customer money.”

sbf doesn't understand risk

"let’s say there’s a game: 51 percent, you double the Earth out somewhere else; 49 percent, it all disappears. Would you play that game? And would you keep on playing that, double or nothing?"

Isn’t it risky for him to testify? Won’t he be subjected to withering cross-examination from well-prepared prosecutors who will trap him in lies? Well! I mean, sure, probably. But if he does not testify, all the jury will have is (1) the testimony of FTX customers who are like “all our money is gone,” (2) the testimony of all of his closest friends and colleagues testifying “yeah we stole all the money because Sam told us to” and (3) screenshots of FTX computer code that is like “IF you_feel_like_it THEN steal(all.the.money).” His testimony just cannot make things worse! The jury is going to get the prosecutors’ story and it is really, really, really, really bad for Bankman-Fried. He needs to tell his side of the story to have any shot at all. If his testimony has a 10% chance of being compelling and a 90% chance of being disastrous, that is all upside.4 If he does not testify, that is 100% disastrous.