A jury has found Sam Bankman-Fried guilty of all seven criminal counts against him.
via: NPR
Bankman-Fried now faces the prospect of spending decades in prison after being convicted on charges including securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. The jury reached its verdict after just five hours of deliberations.
Bankman-Fried is likely to appeal.
“We respect the jury’s decision. But we are very disappointed with the result. Mr. Bankman Fried maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him,” Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, said in a statement.
During a trial that lasted more than four weeks, prosecutors sought to prove that Bankman-Fried had been a criminal mastermind who orchestrated a massive financial fraud.
In a courtroom that was frequently packed, prosecutors detailed how Bankman-Fried and some of his top lieutenants secretly funneled billions of dollars in customer assets from FTX to Alameda Research, a private trading firm he also controlled.
The U.S. government said the former billionaire treated Alameda like a personal piggybank, using FTX customer money to buy luxury real estate for friends and family, and to make political donations and risky investments.
“Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history — a multibillion-dollar scheme designed to make him the King of Crypto — but 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,” said Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a statement.
“This case has always been about lying, cheating, and stealing, and we have no patience for it,” he added.
Bankman-Fried now faces a maximum sentence of 110 years in prison, with sentencing scheduled for Mar. 28 next year. A second trial for five additional charges against the disgraced former billionaire is also currently scheduled for March.
