After a five-week trial, a New York jury has concluded that Sam Bankman-Fried was involved in fraudulent activities against his customers and lenders.
Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, has been found guilty on multiple charges, including two counts of wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of securities fraud, one count of commodities fraud conspiracy, and one count of money laundering conspiracy.
“The verdict unanimous, your honor.”
His sentencing date will be set later by New York District Judge Lewis Kaplan. If found guilty on all counts, Bankman-Fried could potentially face a maximum prison sentence of 110 years. Notably, wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy carry a maximum 20-year sentence.
In a significant development, other key executives from FTX, like former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, FTX co-founder Gary Wang, and former FTX engineering head Nishad Singh, have already pleaded guilty to various charges and cooperated with the government to testify against Bankman-Fried.
Bankman-Fried initially pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. Throughout his trial, he testified in his defense, maintaining his innocence and attributing FTX’s November 2022 collapse to “a number of big mistakes.” He vehemently denied any wrongdoing in FTX’s association with Alameda and aimed to create a separation from crucial decisions made during that time.
His trial began in early October, with federal prosecutors seeking to depict him as someone who intentionally aimed to misappropriate approximately $8 billion of his customers’ funds. Allegedly, these funds were diverted for purposes such as real estate acquisitions, sports sponsorships, and venture investments.
Conversely, Bankman-Fried’s defense team argued that he was an overwhelmed entrepreneur who mistakenly assumed that the funds he used belonged to the respective companies rather than their customers or investors.
Around a year ago, FTX faced a significant downturn after a CoinDesk article was published. The report revealed substantial holdings of FTX’s exchange token, FTT, by Alameda. This disclosure, along with tweets from Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, led to what Bankman-Fried described as a “rush on FTX,” ultimately resulting in FTX, Alameda, and their associated subsidiaries seeking bankruptcy protection.
What a chaotic situation this has been, hopefully marking its conclusion.
