On Thursday evening, a jury found FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried guilty on all seven counts of criminal fraud that he was charged with in the October trial. The former CEO of the crypto exchange FTX pleaded not guilty to seven counts of fraud after the collapse of the crypto exchange. Other senior executives, including a co-founder and his former girlfriend, took a guilty plea and cooperated with the authorities. The maximum sentence for all the counts is 115 years in prison.
Sam Bankman-Fried is the 31-year-old son of two legal scholars at Stanford University—Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried. He was considered a wonder kid as he was feted by the media, celebrity stars, investors, the marketplace, and others. However, as CEO he also oversaw the collapse of FTX after investors’ funds were used to prop up sister concern, hedge fund Alameda Research. He was also referred to as the “King of Crypto” before his mighty fall from grace.
The federal trial against Sam Bankman-Fried began in early October, and the jury reached a verdict on Thursday, November 2. They received the case reportedly at around 3.15 p.m. on Thursday, and at 7.37 p.m. ET, attorneys rushed back to the courtroom.
The clerk said that the jury had reached a verdict, and the jury was back in the courtroom in a minute. While Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents looked anxious, Sam Bankman-Fried looked impassive.
Lower Manhattan courthouse presiding judge Lewis Kaplan instructed Sam Bankman-Fried to stand and face the jury box, and the verdicts were read. The forewoman and the defendant stood while the verdict was pronounced as guilty on all seven counts.
After the pronouncement of the verdicts, Mark Cohen, who is the attorney for Sam Bankman-Fried, asked for jurors to be polled. They went to each juror and asked if their verdict had been read correctly. Each one of them said yes.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, the presiding judge in Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial, thanked the jurors, following which they were escorted out of the room.
After the verdict, lawyer Mark Cohen released a statement saying that Sam Bankman-Fried “maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland released a statement saying, “Sam Bankman-Fried thought that he was above the law. Today’s verdict proves he was wrong” and more.
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