Ex-crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried convicted of defrauding FTX customers

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Reuters

November 2, 2023 8:08 PM EDT


NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on Thursday of defrauding customers of his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange in one of the biggest financial frauds on record, a verdict that cemented the 31-year-old former billionaire's fall from grace.

A 12-member jury in Manhattan federal court convicted him on all seven counts he faced after a monthlong trial in which prosecutors made the case that he stole $8 billion from the exchange's customers out of sheer greed. The verdict came just shy of one year after FTX filed for bankruptcy in a swift corporate meltdown that shocked financial markets and erased his estimated $26 billion personal fortune.

The jury reached the verdict after just over four hours of deliberations. Bankman-Fried stood and clasped his hands together as the verdict was read. Bankman-Fried, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate whose mother Barbara Fried and father Joseph Bankman are both Stanford University law professors, had pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy.

The conviction represented a victory for the U.S. Justice Department and Damian Williams, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, who made rooting out corruption in financial markets one of his top priorities. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan set Bankman-Fried's sentencing for March 28, 2024. His defense lawyers, who objected to several rulings by Kaplan before and during the trial, are expected to appeal the verdict.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-thought-rules-did-not-apply-him-prosecutor-says-2023-11-02/

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Article updated.

Original article -

November 2, 2023 7:51 PM EDT Updated a min ago

NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on Thursday of defrauding customers of his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange in one of the biggest financial frauds on record, a verdict that cemented the 31-year-old former billionaire's fall from grace.

A 12-member jury in Manhattan federal court convicted him on all seven counts he faced after a monthlong trial in which prosecutors made the case that he stole $8 billion from the exchange's customers out of sheer greed. The verdict came just shy of one year after FTX filed for bankruptcy in a swift corporate meltdown that shocked financial markets and erased his estimated $26 billion personal fortune.

The jury reached the verdict after just over four hours of deliberations. Bankman-Fried stood and clasped his hands together as the verdict was read.

Bankman-Fried had pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy. The conviction represented a victory for the U.S. Justice Department and Damian Williams, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, who made rooting out corruption in financial markets one of his top priorities.

[BeyondGeography]

1. Gee, that didn't take long

Wonder why.

[underpants]

3. "out of sheer greed"

This was a no brainer.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

5. Don't steal from rich people.

[Probatim]

15. 100% Fact.

[spooky3]

2. Justice. Nt

[SouthernDem4ever]

4. Didn't he try the Drump Jr defense?

I thought I heard he said he knew nothing about crypto. LOL

[Pluvious]

6. One comment about the prosecutor's closing statement yesterday...

Today is the closing arguments of the prosecution in the Sam Bankman-Fried FTX trial. They are absolutely eviscerating him. They claim how can a man who was so smart, MIT graduate, meeting with the leaders of the world, the king of Crypto, suddenly “not know what happened?” How can he suddenly play dumb and develop amnesia? It is because he thinks he’s smarter than you! Which is why you should convict him as guilty on all counts.

[Prairie Gates]

7. I predict 27 year sentence

Over-under?

[LudwigPastorius]

8. He faces a maximum 115 years.

He'll probably get 18, and be out in 12.

[dickthegrouch]

9. His sentence better include restitution

In full. With interest. Including from any and all accomplices.
I define accomplices as every financial manager and/or auditor, and anyone involved who had more than a CPA against their name.

[moniss]

10. Is he in custody pending

sentencing?

[CaptainTruth]

11. He wasn't smart enough to take the $8 billion...

...& flee to a country that doesn't have an extradition treaty?

Not that I want that, but jeez, when you get to numbers like $8 billion if you have a functioning brain you think about an escape plan.

[DinahMoeHum]

12. Moral here: "Boy-Wonder" tech/finance bro CEOs who wear T-shirts

and shit-post on social media are usually piss-poor fiduciaries.

I'm interested in actor/author Ben McKenzie's take on all this as he's the co-author of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud. He has also taken author Michael Lewis to task for his book on SBF called Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon as being too close to SBF to be objective.

[Pluvious]

13. Musk had predicted...

Fukin Musk…

Link to tweet

[NBachers]

14. Hey Donnie, check this out . . .

[Hotler]

16. Wow! ... It didn't take 23-months to put a prosecutor on this case. Over and done with in a year.

I guess justice moves swiftly when you're ripping off the rich folk because their money matters above all else. Attempt a coup against our country and watch justice slow to a crawl. How come this guy didn't file motion after motion and appeal after appeal? Especially since he has a boat load of money and his parents being law professors. He could be palling around with the orange one.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. His parents are next

And note that his case wasn't "RICO" with dozens and dozens of participants - it was literally his family, some former coworkers, and an associated company created for the heist.

And no it didn't take "23 months to assign a prosecutor" for J6. This nonsense keeps getting repeated. DOJ was on it literally on January 6 - despite that DOJ being 45's DOJ and NOT Biden's DOJ. Once it was confirmed that the "planning" was more extensive than previously realized and that there would be crap promoted by the GOP that we see happening right now with their bullshit about "weaponization" (projecting what THEY are doing), then that whole investigation had to be farmed off to a primary point of contact.

The "classified documents" part was well underway BEFORE Jack Smith even arrived and was still overseas at The Hague.

The coup has had many layers and moving parts AND court challenges that halted progress (and continues to do so) all along the say.

If you have seen any of MSNBC's prime time hosts and the graphics used to describe the J6 & classified docs cases, it would render the FTX case as "small potatoes" in terms of scope, despite the financial hit that the banks that associated with FTX took. That's why the verdict happened very quickly. It was open/shut.

I saved this as an example of the J6/classified docs-

And so much has come down since that came out.

[Shermann]

18. The sentencing guidelines are off the charts (literally)

There is so much money involved and so many victims, he could be looking at life.

What to do with this guy? He's nothing but a two-bit hustler who caught lightning in a bottle and found himself in control of billions of dollars.

But should he get a longer sentence than, say, a predator like R. Kelly? Is he a bigger threat to society?