Old FTXIts CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, was found guilty on all seven charges in a New York criminal trial that lasted nearly four hours.
Sam Bankman– fried( SBF ) was convicted in total of two counts of wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud scheme, one count of securities fraud, one count of commodity fraud conspiracy, and one count of money laundering conspiracy. US Attorney General Damian Williams, called SBF’s crimes “a multibillion-dollar scheme designed to make it the king of crypto” and one of the largest financial frauds in American history.
Striking statement from SBF lawyer: “He maintains his innocence!”
Old FTXCEO, New York District Judge on March 28, 2024 Lewis Tiger He will return to court for the sentence to be given by him. Government prosecutors will recommend a sentence, but Judge Kaplan will have the final say. Each of the SBF crimes carries a maximum prison sentence of 5 to 20 years, while wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy also carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian WilliamsAt the press conference he held outside the court, he made harsh statements against SBF and stated that this incident was one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.
SBF’s lawyer mark CohenHe said in his statement: “We respect the jury’s decision. However, we were very disappointed with the result. SBF maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him.”
STATEMENT FROM THE TEAM OF SAM BANKMAN-FRIED —
“We respect the jury’s decision. But we are very disappointed with the result. Mr. Bankman Fried maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him." pic.twitter.com/Q69w6nKB34
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) November 3, 2023
Old AlamedaCEO Caroline EllisonOther key FTX executives, including FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former FTX head of engineering Nishad Singh, pleaded guilty to various charges and worked with the government to testify at the five-week trial and against former FTX CEO SBF.
SBF, on the other hand, denied all charges and took the stand during his trial to maintain his innocence, describing FTX’s collapse in November 2022 as “ One soap opera big mistake ” he described. He denied any wrongdoing in FTX’s relationship with Alameda and attempted to distance himself from important decisions.
SBF placed the blame on Wang for creating a function that allowed Alameda to trade funds on FTX that it did not own, and claimed that Alameda was “not quite sure what was going on” with its credit line running into the billions. In his statement, he also faulted Ellison for not focusing on risk management. Additionally, FTX did not believe that it had defrauded its customers by taking $8 billion worth of their funds, instead framing it as Alameda borrowing money from the exchange.