A jury on Thursday found Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto platform FTX, guilty of all seven criminal counts that had been brought against him. The former billionaire now faces a maximum prison sentence of 110 years.
Bankman-Fried had been charged with stealing $10 billion from FTX customers, which he later used to fund political donations, investments and personal spending. The jury deliberated for all of four hours before returning their guilty verdict.
Bankman-Fried, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, was convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud against FTX customers, as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud against FTX investors and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
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Bankman-Fried's attorney, Mark Cohen, said after hearing the verdict that his client “maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him.”
Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said after the verdict that Bankman-Fried "perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history."
“While the cryptocurrency industry might be new and the players like Sam Bankman-Fried might be new, this kind of corruption is as old as time. This case has always been about lying, cheating, and stealing, and we have no patience for it.”
The trial, in which the prosecution showcased evidence that amounted to millions of pages of internal messages and memos, additionally featured the testimony of several former FTX executives, including Bankman-Fried's former girlfriend. These ex-friends of the former crypto billionaire previously pleaded guilty to fraud, opting to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for leniency.
They will be sentenced later in 2024.
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Bankman-Fried, currently being held in prison in New York, was sent to jail in August after breaching the terms of his bail after claims of alleged witness intimidation.
A year ago, FTX was one of the world's largest crypto platforms, boasting a $32 billion market cap. The company filed for bankruptcy in November 2022 following a run on deposits that exposed a multi-billion-dollar gap in the company's accounts. Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas the next month.
Judge Lewis Kaplan will sentence Bankman-Fried in March.
Despite Bankman-Fried's continued assertions of innocence, Tesla TSLA CEO Elon Musk thinks the jury made the right call.
"There is great wisdom in the jury system," he wrote in response to the conviction.
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