2023-11-03 08:10:56
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX platform, risks spending the rest of his life in prison. His sentence will be pronounced on March 28, 2024.
Accused of having “committed one of the largest financial frauds in the history of the United States”, Sam Bankman-Friedfallen star of cryptocurrencies, incurs up to 110 years of criminal imprisonment. The man was found guilty on Thursday by a New York jury of seven charges brought against him. Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan will pronounce his sentence on March 28.
After less than five hours of deliberation, the jury found “SBF” guilty of having used, without the knowledge of its clients, the funds deposited by them on its cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX. It went bankrupt in November 2022.
Money fueled the risky transactions and investments of his investment company Alameda Research, whose borrowings from FTX reached up to approximately $14 billion.
FTX’s bankruptcy, which came after six months of turmoil and other failures, penalized the world of cryptocurrencieswho is barely recovering from this crossing of the desert.
Sam Bankman-Fried admitted “big mistakes”, but always denied knowingly breaking the law.
Insane risk-taking
“Sam Bankman-Fried committed one of the largest financial frauds in American history,” said the Manhattan federal prosecutor Damian Williams, after the verdict was read. “A multi-billion dollar scheme designed to make him the king of crypto.”
It is a success for the prosecution, which buried “SBF” under millions of documents, many of them damning, as well as the testimonies of three of his former close collaborators, including his former girlfriend. All claimed to have acted under the direction of their former boss, who was in charge of all the key decisions that enabled the embezzlement of customers’ money and senseless risk-taking by Alameda.
In addition to Thursday’s conviction, the former trader is summoned for a second trial, in early March, for bribery of a foreign agent and illegal political donation.
For his part, Sam Bankman-Fried, whose fortune soared with the implosion of FTX and Alameda, tried to plead good faith, presenting the face of a young, inexperienced entrepreneur rather than that of a criminal. He admitted to “big mistakes”, but always denied knowingly breaking the law. The young thirty-year-old even chose to testify at his trial, a rare initiative, because it is considered too risky.
But this hearing, failing to strengthen him, weakened him even more: the former crypto educator showing himself to be elusive and convoluted under the fire of the prosecution’s questions. Sam Bankman-Fried also tried to charge his ex-collaboratorsaccusing them sometimes of incompetence, sometimes of having warned him too late or insufficiently of the financial situation of Alameda.
Pots of wine
In addition to Thursday’s conviction, the former trader is summoned for a second trial, in early March, for bribery of foreign officials and illegal political donations. He is accused of paying about $150 million in bribes to Chinese officials.
The graduate of the prestigious MIT in Boston is also targeted for donations to politiciansdrawn from the background of FTX clients, notably the Joe Biden presidential campaign.
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