Benkman-Fried was detained in December 2022 in the Bahamas after the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX he founded.
A jury found Sam Bankman-Fried guilty on all 7 counts of fraud and conspiracy. According to The New York Times, he faces a maximum sentence of 110 years in prison.
In 2022, the US Department of Justice began to closely examine his role in the FTX collapse - lawyers were carefully examining the company's accounts and its subsidiary Alameda Research, and Bankman-Fried's involvement in the transfer of $600 million of investor funds, which allegedly disappeared after a hack and led to the bankruptcy of the cryptocurrency exchange.
In court, prosecutors claimed that Bankman-Fried used FTX clients' funds to support Alameda Research, which his girlfriend Caroline Allison, who was in charge of a cryptocurrency hedge fund, was aware of. It was also reported that the entrepreneur used billions of dollars of client money to buy luxury goods or real estate. Sam was also considering the purchase of the island nation of Nauru with the aim of building a bunker there.
Sam Bankman-Fried previously denied intentionally misusing FTX funds, and his lawyers tried to present their client as a mathematician who has to fight "forces that are largely beyond his control." At the same time, Allison and three former top advisors to Sam pleaded guilty, with Caroline adding that she participated in fraud at Bankman-Fried's direction.
The FTX founder is accused of conspiracy to commit fraud and fraud with clients of the cryptocurrency exchange and creditors of Alameda Research, as well as conspiracy to commit securities and commodities fraud against FTX clients and money laundering.
The sentence is expected to be handed down by US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan on March 28, 2024. It is expected that Bankman-Fried will file an appeal.
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