Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto exchange FTX, was found guilty by a jury on Thursday of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. American media report this. The former crypto billionaire is said to have diverted billions of dollars from FTX customers to his investment firm Alameda.
Bankman-Fried, who says he is innocent, is alleged to have defrauded FTX investors in addition to money laundering and fraud with customer money. “One of the largest financial frauds in American history,” a prosecutor called it Thursday. “The cryptocurrency industry may be new; players like Bankman-Fried may be new. But this kind of fraud, this kind of corruption, is as old as time.”
The crypto marketplace FTX collapsed at the end of 2022 after it emerged that billions of dollars of customer money had been funneled to Alameda. Customers of the crypto exchange tried to withdraw their money from the platform, while at the same time the value of Alameda and the firm’s investments plummeted. As a result, FTX was unable to refund the money.
Bankman-Fried defended himself in court last month by stating that he and the top management of FTX had no malicious intentions, but that the company was poorly managed. SBF will hear his sentence in March 2024: he could face up to 110 years in prison.
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