Key takeaways:
- After nearly four hours of deliberation, a jury in the criminal trial of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) found him guilty on all seven charges.
- Judge Kaplan will make the final decision about the sentence, although government prosecutors will propose one.
After nearly four hours of deliberation, a jury in the criminal trial of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) found him guilty on all seven charges.
SBF was found guilty on two charges of wire fraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count each of securities fraud, commodities fraud, and money laundering.
On March 28, 2024, he will appear in court again to be sentenced by New York District Judge Lewis Kaplan. Judge Kaplan will make the final decision about the sentence, although government prosecutors will propose one.
The maximum term for each of SBF’s crimes is five to twenty years in jail; the maximum sentence for wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy is twenty years.
US Attorney Damian Williams of the New York Southern District described SBF’s offenses as “a multibillion-dollar scheme designed to make him the king of crypto” and one of the largest financial frauds in American history during a press conference held outside the court. Mark Cohen, the lawyer for SBF, stated in a statement:
“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.”
In charge In the event of any unanticipated delays, Judge Lewis Kaplan has scheduled the second SBF trial for March 15 and set the date of sentencing for March 28. On December 11, the post-trial motion schedule will be distributed.
Other significant FTX executives have entered guilty pleas to various counts and cooperated with the prosecution to testify against SBF during the five-week trial. These individuals include former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, FTX co-founder Gary Wang, and former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh.
SBF entered a not-guilty plea to all charges, and he maintained his innocence by referring to FTX’s collapse in November 2022 as the result of “a number of big mistakes” during his trial. He tried to put FTX’s relationship with Alameda behind him and denied any misconduct.
SBF said he “wasn’t entirely sure what happened” with Alameda’s line of credit, which blew up to billions in the collapsing 2022 crypto market, and blamed Wang for developing a feature that let Alameda trade funds on FTX that it didn’t have.
In his testimony, he also accused Ellison of neglecting risk management, saying that Alameda was borrowing from the exchange and that he didn’t think Ellison had scammed FTX customers out of nearly $8 billion in assets.
