Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the crashed and defunct crypto exchange FTX, has been found guilty of fraud and conspiracy. He received a total of 110 years in prison.
A federal jury in the US found it proven that Bankman-Fried diverted hundreds of millions of dollars from crypto investors to personal accounts. He was found guilty of all seven charges, it said The New York Times. The stock exchange founder had previously claimed that the $600 million was stolen by hackers.
Fraudulent transactions at FTX
The self-proclaimed crypto guru was born in December of 2022 arrested in the Bahamas. This happened after an investigation by the US Department of Justice. He quickly saw that Bankman-Fried was not playing a straight game in the demise of FTX. An investigation also followed into the transfer of funds to sister company Alameda Research.
Prosecutors argued at trial that Bankman-Fried diverted the funds to keep Alameda Research afloat. The fallen stock market guru was also behind the hedge fund that he had managed by his girlfriend Caroline Ellison. She is also said to have been aware that Bankman-Fried was putting money from FTX investors into Alameda Research. The young entrepreneur had previously denied this.
Guilty all along the line
According to The New York Times, Bankman-Fried attorneys tried to portray him as a math nerd who had to deal with “powerful outside influences,” but the jury clearly disagreed after Ellison’s cross-examination and testimony from three advisors from Bankman-Fried. They all pleaded guilty and the person responsible for Alameda Research admitted to committing fraud on behalf of the young businessman. Bankman-Fried himself said he deeply regretted not asking more questions about the $8 billion that his hedge fund had ‘borrowed’ from the crypto exchange.
Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven charges, including transaction fraud against FTX users, fraud related to the loans to Alameda Research and conspiracy to engage in fraudulent transactions and money laundering. The final sentence will be pronounced on March 28, 2024, by US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who also presided over this trial.
