Sam Bankman-Fried co-founded FTX in 2019 and is its CEO. Photo FTX
It’s official! Sam Bankman-Fried is now a convicted felon. The former king of the cryptocurrency world was convicted on all seven counts relating to a $10 billion fraud.
The jury didn’t even need very much time to reach its verdict, taking only four hours to do so.
And now we wait to learn how many years the judge will make Sam Bankman-Fried spend in jail. Theoretically, it could be for more than a century.
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“We respect the jury’s decision, but we are very disappointed with the result,” Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer Mark Cohen said about the verdict. “My client maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him.”
Of course, his lawyer had to say that. But if Banlman-Fried does appeal the verdict the question now is, where will he get the money to continue funding his legal expenses? Does he even have any money anymore?
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams commented, “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. This case has always been about lying, cheating, and stealing, and we have no patience for it.”
“This case is also a warning to every fraudster who thinks they’re untouchable, that their crimes are too complex for us to catch,” he added, “that they are too powerful to prosecute, or that they are clever enough to talk their way out of it if caught. Those folks should think again, and cut it out. And if they don’t, I promise we’ll have enough handcuffs for all of them.”
“Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history,” Williams declared.
“Sam Bankman-Fried thought that he was above the law. Today’s verdict proves he was wrong,” said US Attorney General Merrick Garland. ““This case should send a clear message to anyone who tries to hide their crimes behind a shiny new thing they claim no one else is smart enough to understand: the Justice Department will hold you accountable.”
“This case should send a clear message to anyone who tries to hide their crimes behind a shiny new thing they claim no one else is smart enough to understand: the Justice Department will hold you accountable.”
Sam Bankman-Fried was charged after his FTX cryptocurrency exchange company went bust a few weeks ago. The big question over the fall of FTX is “what happened to all of the money that people left with the company?” FTX was a crypto bank, so to speak, a place where people could park their virtual assets. But unlike with banks, there is no regulation over the handling of cryptos and FTX is said to have moved people’s cryptos around, basically that the company spent their money.
Based in the Bahamas, FTX was a cryptocurrency exchange that said it was built by traders, for traders. FTX offers industry-first derivatives, options, volatility products and leveraged tokens. FTX had more than one million traders using its services when it failed.
