Disgraced Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Friend Found Guilty on All Seven Fraud Charges
Earlier on Thursday, a New York jury found FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried guilty of defrauding his customers and lenders, concluding a five-week trial.
In a unanimous verdict which the judge said came in at 7:40 pm, the jury found Bankman-Fried guilty of all of the seven charges he had faced.
In a statement, Bankman-Fried’s defense attorney Mark Cohen said the disgraced FTX founder respects the jury’s decision but will continue to fight to prove his innocence.
The judge marked out the 28th of March 2024 as a potential sentencing date.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s charges include 1) wire fraud and 2) conspiracy to commit wire fraud against FTX customers, 3) wire fraud and 4) conspiracy to commit wire fraud against Alameda’s lenders, 5) conspiracy to commit securities fraud against FTX’s investors, 6) conspiracy to commit commodities fraud against FTX’s customers and, finally, 7) conspiracy to commit money laundering.
A number of former FTX executives, including the company’s CTO Gary Wang, Head of Engineering Nishad Singh and former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, testified against Bankman-Friend.
They all said they are pleading guilty to charges relating to their role in the FTX collapse, but all argued that they had taken direction from Bankman-Fried, who oversaw the fraudulent operation.
Crypto’s Biggest Fraudster
SBF could easily go down for decades.
Investors and users lost billions when the exchange abruptly collapsed just over one year ago, following a bank-run that forced it to halt withdrawals.
The exchange declared bankruptcy on the 11th of November 2022, while Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested around one month later.
FTX said earlier this year that the hole in its balance was nearly $9 billion.
It seems that Sam Bankman-Friend had funneled FTX customer/investor funds to bail out his failing hedge fund Alameda, which over the course of 2022 had lost billions amid bad crypto bets and poor risk management.
Bankman-Fried’s guilt gives his the unwanted crown of being crypto’s biggest-ever fraudster.
Other notable scammers include the creators of the OneCoin and BitConnect ponzi schemes, which cost investors $2.4 and $4 billion respectively.
