Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and former CEO of crypto exchange FTX, has been found guilty of wire fraud after scamming customers out of approximately $10 billion.
The verdict came down in a Manhattan federal court after a relatively brief deliberation on Thursday, with the jurors finding Bankman-Fried guilty of all seven charges brought against him. In addition to the two counts of wire fraud, this included two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The former crypto billionaire had pleaded not guilty to all charges, and even launched a Substack to defend himself in the court of public opinion in January.
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.
“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,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “This case has always been about lying, cheating, and stealing, and we have no patience for it.”
FTX determines around $9 billion in customer funds are missing
Prior to its dramatic collapse, FTX had been the fourth largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. However, unbeknownst to the public, the company was secretly lending billions of dollars worth of customers’ assets to Bankman-Fried’s trading firm Alameda Research. This money was used to bet on other cryptocurrencies without FTX customers’ authorisation — a scheme that eventually fell apart. Approximately one million FTX customers are now facing losses.
FTX filed for bankruptcy last November, before Bankman-Fried was arrested and extradited to the U.S. in December.
It’s highly likely that Bankman-Fried will appeal this week’s verdict, his lawyer stating that he “maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him.” He’ll have a difficult fight ahead of him if he does intend to keep arguing his innocence, though.