Disgraced Sam Bankman-Fried Found Guilty On Fraud Charges

Sarah Arnold | November 02, 2023 8:30 PM

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty of all fraud charges related to the downfall of his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange.

On Thursday, a New York jury in a Manhattan federal court found Bankman-Fried guilty after the verdict was reached roughly four hours after the jury began deliberations.

He was charged with seven counts of wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering that defrauded customers of his digital currency exchange, FTX, and lenders to its affiliated hedge fund, Alameda Research.

The charges combined amount to a maximum sentence of 110 years in prison.

More on Bankman-Fried's collapse from NBC News:

FTX and Alameda quickly collapsed in November 2022 after some of their financial liabilities were exposed. The fact that Alameda had taken billions of dollars from FTX's customers and that much of Alameda's balance sheet was comprised of digital currency assets it had created was central to the case against Bankman-Fried. Unnerved by disclosures about the firm's financial position, many of FTX's customers tried to get their money back. That set off the equivalent of a bank run. The value of Alameda's investments crashed, and FTX couldn't return much of that money because it had been given to Alameda. Some went to the fund's lenders, and billions were spent on sponsorships, commercials, and loans to top executives. That, too, was a major part of the case against Bankman-Fried. Much of FTX and Alameda's leadership were also charged after the firms went under. Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, FTX co-founder Gary Wang, and FTX technology chief Nishad Singh all pleaded guilty to the charges against them. They agreed to cooperate with the prosecution and testify against Bankman-Fried in exchange for lighter sentences.