By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK Sam Bankman-Fried could take the stand at his fraud trial as soon as Thursday, when prosecutors are set to finish presenting their case accusing the founder of now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX of stealing billions of dollars from customers.

Defense lawyer Mark Cohen said in a court hearing on Wednesday that Bankman-Fried would testify in his own defense, a risky move that will give prosecutors the chance to cross-examine the 31-year-old former billionaire about testimony from former close colleagues that he directed them to commit crimes.

Legal experts said Bankman-Fried has little to lose by bucking conventional wisdom and testifying, given weeks of testimony against him by insiders painting an unflattering portrait of his character.

He has already taken an unusual approach for a criminal defendant. Instead of laying low after he was charged, he published blog posts on his view of what went wrong and met with several journalists.

Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty and maintained that while he made mistakes running FTX, he never intended to steal funds. His lawyers have said three of his former colleagues, who have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, tailored their testimony to implicate Bankman-Fried in the hopes of receiving lenient sentences.

Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried used the misappropriated funds to prop up his crypto-focused hedge fund, Alameda Research, make speculative venture investments, and donate more than $100 million to U.S. political campaigns. They say Alameda looted FTX funds through special trading privileges on the exchange.

Prosecutors expect to call just one more witness, FBI agent Mark Troiano, when the trial resumes at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT) in federal court in Manhattan after a week-long break. Cohen said the defense plans to call three brief witnesses before Bankman-Fried takes the stand.

Cohen in a Wednesday evening court filing told the U.S. district judge he wanted to ask Bankman-Fried about lawyers' involvement in structuring loans from Alameda to FTX executives, which prosecutors say was a key way the defendant and others took funds from unwitting customers.

But Cohen said Bankman-Fried's "knowledge that lawyers were involved in structuring and documenting the loans would be probative of his good faith belief that there was nothing inappropriate."

Prosecutors may ask Bankman-Fried about why he did not disclose Alameda's privileges to FTX customers or equity investors, and why he posted on social media in the midst of a wave of customer withdrawals last November that FTX was "fine" when he knew it was short billions of dollars in funds.

In the letter, Cohen said Bankman-Fried reserves the right to decide not to testify.

Cohen said on an earlier conference call the defense could finish presenting its case by Friday, paving the way for closing arguments and jury deliberations next week. If convicted, Bankman-Fried could face decades in prison.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Jonathan Oatis)