Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on all seven of the criminal charges brought against him by a jury.
The founder of FTX might receive a maximum prison term of 115 years.
Key witnesses for the prosecution were former members of Bankman-Fried’s close group.
Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on all seven of the criminal charges brought against him by a jury. The founder of FTX might receive a maximum prison term of 115 years.
Bankman-Fried, a 31-year-old Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate and the son of two Stanford legal scholars, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud against FTX investors, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud against FTX customers and Alameda Research lenders.
He had entered a not guilty plea to all of the accusations, which had to do with the demise of FTX and its sibling hedge fund Alameda in the latter part of last year.
Following the reading of the verdicts, Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney Damian Williams stated in a briefing that “Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.” Although the cryptocurrency space and individuals such as Sam Bankman-Fried may be relatively new, corruption of this sort has a long history. We have no tolerance for the lying, cheating, and stealing that have always been involved in this case.
In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “Sam Bankman-Fried believed he was above the law. The decision today shows he was mistaken.
“The Justice Department will hold you accountable if you try to cloak your crimes behind a shiny new thing you think no one else is smart enough to understand,” this case should make very apparent.
The testimony of Bankman-Fried’s former close friends and top lieutenants was put up against the sworn declarations of their former boss and ex-roommate in the federal trial, which got underway in early October. After getting the case at approximately 3:15 p.m. ET on Thursday and adjourning for dinner at approximately 6 p.m. ET, the jury rendered a quick decision.
The clerk announced, “The jury has reached a verdict,” as the attorneys hurried back into the courtroom at 7:37 p.m. ET. The jury came back in the room a minute later.
When the parents of Bankman-Fried entered the courtroom, they were clearly frightened. They took turns wrapping their arms around each other while seated in the second pew. The defendant reclined back in his chair when he and his counsel returned to the table. The defendant was dressed in a black suit and purple tie. He looked straight ahead without even flinching.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw the trial, told Bankman-Fried to face the jury box as the verdicts were read from the top level of the lower Manhattan courthouse. The defendant and the forewoman were the only two individuals still standing.
All of the tallies have been read at 7:47 p.m. ET. Bankman-Fried did not waver. He was not upset.
Mark Cohen, the lawyer for Bankman-Fried, requested that the jury be surveyed as soon as the guilty verdicts were returned.
During his closing statement on Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos informed the court that there was “no serious dispute” regarding the disappearance of $10 billion in customer funds that were stored in FTX’s cryptocurrency exchange. He claimed that the question is whether Bankman-Fried knew it was improper to take the money.
Roos stated, “The defendant conned and lied to obtain money, which he then spent.”
Currently, Bankman-Fried is awaiting sentencing. His situation has been likened to that of Elizabeth Holmes, the creator of the medical device startup Theranos, which shut down in 2018.
