A Manhattan jury found him guilty on Thursday, November 2, 2023, of stealing from clients of his FTX cryptocurrency platform in one of the largest financial frauds in United States history.
In his prime, he was nicknamed “the wunderkind” on Wall Street, made Super Bowl ads and even dreamed of a future candidacy for the Presidency of the United States. But the incredible rise of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried hit rock bottom this Thursday.
The young former billionaire is preparing to hear his conviction for defrauding clients of FTX, the cryptocurrency platform he founded just four years ago, out of billions of dollars.
A jury in federal court in Manhattan he was found guilty of all seven charges he faced after a month-long trial in which prosecutors argued he stole $8 billion from his users out of pure greed.
Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, recalled that “Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the largest financial frauds in American history, a multi-million dollar scheme designed to make him king of cryptocurrencies.”
The ruling comes just a year after FTX, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, filed for bankruptcy, shocking financial markets and wiping out 31-year-old Forbes’ estimated personal fortune. of 26 billion dollars.
From the “prodigy child” to the list of the biggest scammers
The 12 jurors who reviewed her case rejected Bankman-Fried’s claim during her testimony that she never committed fraud or intended to defraud clients.
However, He was found guilty of two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy, which carries a sentence of up to 110 years in prison. The sentencing hearing is set for March 28, 2024.
Bankman-Fried was once the darling of the cryptocurrency world. He is known for his curly, messy hair and for wearing shorts and T-shirts instead of business attire.
After this sentence he joins famous fraudsters such as Bernie Madoff, who defrauded thousands of clients in his Ponzi scheme, and the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’, Jordan Belfort, all with outstanding convictions for the largest financial crime in the United States.
