FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried leaves Manhattan Federal Courtroom after a court docket look on June 15, 2023 in New York Metropolis.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Photographs
A jury has discovered Sam Bankman-Fried responsible of all seven legal counts in opposition to him. The previous FTX CEO faces a most sentence of 115 years in jail.
Bankman-Fried, the 31-year previous son of two Stanford authorized students and graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Expertise, had pleaded not responsible to fees together with wire fraud, securities fraud and cash laundering tied to the collapse late final 12 months of crypto trade FTX and sister hedge fund Alameda Analysis.
The jury returned a swift verdict after receiving the case at round 3:15 p.m. on Thursday.
The trial, which started in early October, pitted the testimony of Bankman-Fried’s former shut buddies and high lieutenants in opposition to the sworn statements of their former boss and ex-roomate.
The federal government’s key witnesses included Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend and the previous head of Alameda, and FTX co-founder Gary Wang, who was Bankman-Fried’s childhood good friend from math camp. Each pleaded responsible in December to a number of fees and cooperated as witnesses for the prosecution.
The central query for jurors to contemplate was whether or not Bankman-Fried acted with legal intent in taking buyer funds from FTX and utilizing that cash to pay for actual property, enterprise investments, company sponsorships, political donations and to cowl losses at Alameda.
Assistant U.S. Legal professional Nicolas Roos informed the court docket in his closing argument on Wednesday, there was “no severe dispute” that $10 billion in buyer cash that was sitting in FTX’s crypto trade went lacking. The difficulty, he mentioned, is whether or not Bankman-Fried knew that taking the cash was unsuitable.
“The defendant schemed and lied to get cash, which he spent,” Roos mentioned.
Within the absence of a profitable attraction, Bankman-Fried now awaits sentencing. His case has been in comparison with that of Elizabeth Holmes, the founding father of medical system firm Theranos, which ceased operations in 2018.
Holmes, 39, was convicted in early 2022 on 4 counts of defrauding traders in Theranos after testifying in her personal protection. She was sentenced to greater than 11 years in jail, and started serving her punishment in Could at a minimum-security facility in Bryan, Texas.
— CNBC’s Daybreak Giel contributed to this report
WATCH: Sam Bankman-Fried set to testify at fraud trial
