Former head of cryptocurrency exchange FTX Sam Bankman-Fried has been found guilty of all the seven criminal charges he was facing.
He would have to deal with the possibility of spending decades in prison after being convicted on charges including securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.
“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,” Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, said in a statement.
To the jury, the prosecution was able to convince them that Bankman-Fried had been a criminal mastermind who staged a massive financial fraud.
“Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history – a multibillion-dollar scheme designed to make him the King of Crypto – but while the cryptocurrency industry might be new and the players like Sam Bankman-Fried might be new, this kind of corruption is as old as time,” said Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a statement.
“This case has always been about lying, cheating, and stealing, and we have no patience for it,” he added.
The case hit another wave when Sam’s friends began to turn on him, including Caroline Ellison, who headed Alameda at one point, and was also his on-again, off-again girlfriend.
She and other colleagues, including Gary Wang – who co-founded Alameda Research and FTX with Bankman-Fried — pleaded guilty to separate charges and cut a deal with the prosecutors.
They told the court that Bankman-Fried directed them to commit crimes.
After several hours of deliberation, the jury sided with the prosecution which means he remains in jail till sentencing.
