Sam Bankman-Fried Found Guilty On All 7 Criminal Counts

Crypto exchange FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty of all the seven criminal counts he faced, according to Damian Williams, US attorney for the Southern District of New York. The announcement was made on Thursday, November 2, 2023, after the verdicts following a month long trial.

The FTX collapse in November 2022 marked one of the darkest phases for the crypto market, with the unfolding of the decline led to losses to the tune of billions of dollars for individual investors.

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Biggest Frauds In US History

The Judge, Lewis Kaplan, has scheduled a sentencing date in March 2024, while Bankman-Fried faces a sentence with maximum prison time of 115 years. The FTX founder faced charges on seven different counts, including fraud and money laundering. Attorney Williams said the lawsuit was “about lying, cheating, and stealing.” The attorney said in a briefing:

“Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history. The cryptocurrency industry might be new. The players like Sam Bankman-Fried, Fried might be new. But this kind of fraud, this kind of corruption, is as old as time and we have no patience for it.”

One of the major accusations against the FTX founder was mismanagement of investor money. In a recent court proceeding, Bankman-Fried said the deposits were diverted in a ‘risk management’ exercise. He faced allegations of using a whopping $8 billion in investor money for speculative trading.

During the court proceedings on Thursday, federal prosectors described Bankman-Fried as the “mastermind of a massive fraud” based on lies, while his lawyers explained that the FTX founder was a nerd who tried in good faith to reverse the collapse of the crypto exchange, Bloomberg said.

SBF To Fight Charges Against Him

Menawhile, the FTX founder’s lawyers have reportedly indicated contesting the jury’s verdict, expressing disappointment over it. According to BBC, Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried’s lawyer said,

“We respect the jury’s decision. But we are very disappointed with the result. Bankman-Fried maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him.”

From being valued at around $32 billion in 2022, FTX currently faces bankruptcy proceedings thanks to the catastrophic fall of the founder. This had also meant a blow to cryptocurrencies like Solana (SOL), owing to the close association with FTX.

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