[ad_1]
Jurors took solely a half-day of deliberations right now to search out former FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried responsible of seven counts of fraud in a scheme that value clients an estimated $10 billion to $14 billion. His crypto alternate, FTX, collapsed out of business final yr.
He now faces a March 28 sentencing date that would lead to a long time of jail time. The 2009 prosecution of Bernard Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme bilked about $20 billion. resulted in a sentence of 150 years in jail.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams instructed reporters after the decision that Bankman-Fried “perpetrated one of many largest monetary frauds in American historical past, a multibillion greenback scheme designed to make him the king of crypto..
“But here’s the thing: The cryptocurrency industry might be new. The players like Sam Bankman-Fried might be new. This kind of fraud, this kind of corruption, is as old as time, and we have no patience for it,” he stated.
Bankman-Fried’s attorneys stated they had been upset with the decision. Bankman-Fried himself took the witness stand for 4 days, a uncommon gambit by a defendant. He stated that he by no means supposed to commit fraud or cheat clients throughout his testimony.
“His crimes caught up to him. His crimes have been exposed,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon instructed the jury simply earlier than they started deliberations. Sassoon stated Bankman-Fried turned his clients’ accounts into his “personal piggy bank,” as as much as $14 billion disappeared.
Bankman-Fried, 31, was one of many high gamers within the rising business of cryptocurrency. He lived the half, as he ceaselessly spoke at business conferences and lived with a bunch of younger executives of their 20s within the Bahamas.
Private jets, Super Bowl tickets, and movie star hangs had been all a part of their world, Bankman-Fried was additionally the No. 2 Democratic get together donor for the 2022 elections, donating greater than $40 million. Hollywood additionally pursued him, hoping to get exclusives on his story.
The authorities relied on the testimony of three former members of Bankman-Fried’s inside circle, together with his former girlfriend, Caroline Ellison. They detailed how he used buyer cash from FTX to prop up his hedge fund, Alameda Research.
FTX cofounder Gary Wang, who was FTX’s chief know-how officer, testified that Bankman-Fried directed him to insert code into FTX’s operations in order that Alameda Research might make limitless withdrawals from FTX and have a credit score line as much as $65 billion. Wang stated the cash got here from clients.
Ellison, Wang and Singh all pleaded responsible to fraud expenses and testified in opposition to Bankman-Fried within the hopes of leniency at sentencing.
Bankman-Fried was arrested final December and extradited to the United States. He remained free on a $250 million private recognizance bond with digital monitoring on the house of his dad and mom in Palo Alto, California. But he was jailed in August when a decide discovered he was attempting to affect the media and others.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
[ad_2]