Former cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried has been convicted in his fraud trial. Jurors in New York found him guilty of seven counts, US media reported from the courtroom. The sentence will be decided later. Bankman-Fried faces decades in prison – in the worst case scenario, it could be more than 100 years in prison.
The jury only needed around five hours to make their decision after the prosecution and defense had finished their closing arguments. The former star entrepreneur himself testified in the trial, but according to observers, he did not cut a convincing figure.
Bankman-Fried became known worldwide as the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which collapsed spectacularly a year ago. The US justice system accuses the 31-year-old of having diverted billions from the assets of FTX customers without their knowledge in order, among other things, to finance risky transactions by his hedge fund Alameda Research.
When these deals went wrong, FTX was also caught in the vortex. According to the indictment, Bankman-Fried is said to have ensured that Alameda was able to borrow money from FTX without providing the usual collateral. He himself shrugged off responsibility in court and referred to the decisions of others.
Bankman-Fried had been heavily burdened in the process by former close colleagues such as Alameda boss Caroline Ellison. He himself said in court that he only partially understood the financial situation of his companies. He was “very surprised” by the extent of the problems when he learned in October 2022 that Alameda Research had around $8 billion in debt to FTX.
Before the collapse, FTX was one of the largest trading venues for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. In December, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas. FTX had its headquarters there.
