Former Crypto Billionaire and FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Found Guilty of All Seven Fraud Charges

Failed cryptocurrency billionaire and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty of federal fraud and other charges on Thursday.

Jurors decided the fate of the disgraced crypto financier, 31, finding him guilty of wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering after defrauding clients at his FTX crypto exchange and lenders to his investment firm Alameda Research, prosecutors said.

A sketch of Sam Bankman-Fried in the courtroom.

Elizabeth Williams via AP

“Bankman-Fried maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him,” his attorney, Mark Cohen, said, according to CNN.

Judge Lewis Kaplan scheduled sentencing for March 28.

During the trial, which began with jury selection on October 3, jurors heard from a number of witnesses, including three top executives Gary Wang, Nishad Singh and Caroline Ellison, who were also close friends of Bankman-Fried.

Everything you need to know about FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s legal controversies (including the celebrities involved)

Ellison, a former Alameda executive, was his ex-girlfriend.

Bankman-Fried and his colleagues worked together, and in some cases lived together, in a lavish $30 million penthouse in Nassau, Bahamas, where FTX was located.

Ellison pleaded guilty to federal charges and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, ABC News reported.

Sam Bankman-Frieda’s ex-girlfriend testifies that FTX founder ‘directed’ her to commit crimes

In bombshell testimony, she told the court that her ex-boyfriend told her to commit fraud, according to multiple media outlets including NBC News.

“He himself directed me to commit these crimes,” she said in her testimony, alleging that Bankman-Fried asked her to funnel money from his customers at the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX in Alameda to pay back the money to companies Alameda had borrowed from. , reports the office.

“Ultimately, we took about $14 billion, some of which we were able to return,” she said, according to CNBC. “I sent balance sheets to the lenders per Sam’s instructions that incorrectly listed Alameda’s assets and liabilities.”

Sam Bankman-Fried.

AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews

She also alleged that Bankman-Fried engineered a way for her to transfer the funds, CNBC and NBC News reported. She said he was “very ambitious” and thought he had a 5% chance of one day becoming president of the United States, according to the Associated Press.

Arrested on December 12, 2022 in Nassau, the former CEO pleaded not guilty to 13 charges, including fraud and bribery.

In December 2022, he was released on $250 million bail and ordered to stay at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California. His bail was revoked in August 2023 due to alleged witness tampering. He was then taken into the custody of U.S. Marshals and then jailed, ABC News reported.

Bankman-Fried’s meteoric fall from grace came after authorities began investigating his company in 2022 after it filed for bankruptcy protection after losing billions of dollars in a short period of time.

Sam Bankman-Fried. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty

Calling the case “one of the largest financial frauds in American history,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who prosecuted Bankman-Fried, said in 2022, “From 2019 until the beginning of this year, Bankman “Fried and his co-conspirators stole billions of dollars from FTX customers. He used the money for his own personal gain, including for personal investments and to cover the expenses and debts of his hedge fund, Alameda Research,” reports CNN.

Before his arrest, Bankman-Fried was billed as “one of the richest people in cryptocurrency.” Forbes.

Want to keep up with the latest crime reports? Sign up for PEOPLE’the free True Crime newsletter for the latest crime news, tracking ongoing trials and details on intriguing unsolved cases.

At the height of its success, his company was valued at $40 billion, according to FTX’s lawyers, NPR reports.

Bankman-Fried co-founded Alameda Research in 2017, three years after graduating from MIT with a degree in physics. Two years later, Bankman-Fried launched FTX.

Everything you need to know about FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s legal controversies (including the celebrities involved)

Authorities allege Bankman-Fried used funds from FTX clients to save Alameda without telling investors.

“U.S. prosecutors said Bankman-Fried engaged in a scheme to defraud FTX customers by siphoning off their deposits to pay Alameda’s expenses and debts and to make investments,” Reuters reported.

He defrauded Alameda lenders “by providing them with false and misleading information about the condition of the hedge fund and attempted to conceal the money he made by committing the fraud,” prosecutors said, according to Reuters.

His attorneys did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education