It took just four hours for a jury to find fallen “crypto king” Sam Bankman-Fried guilty of fraud.
The 31-year-old has been convicted of stealing billions of dollars from customers of FTX, which was the world’s second-largest crypto exchange before its dramatic collapse last year.
To this day, FTX users – at least 80,000 of them in the UK – remain out of pocket as the company’s new management scrambles to figure out where the money went.
A court sketch of Sam Bankman-Fried
During the trial, three members of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle gave evidence – executives with a first-hand insight into how the doomed company was run.
Caroline Ellison, his on-off girlfriend and the CEO of sister trading firm Alameda Research, which contributed to FTX’s downfall, said it was a “relief” when the company went bust.
FTX co-founder Gary Wang said Alameda Research had been allowed to withdraw unlimited funds that belonged to the exchange’s customers without their knowledge – bankrolling risky bets and extravagant purchases.
And Nishad Singh, who was FTX’s head of engineering, revealed that Bankman-Fried had splashed out almost £1bn on celebrity endorsements, high-profile partnerships and lavish real estate – fuelling the illusion of success even further.
This trio had all entered into plea deals before the trial began, but Bankman-Fried has no such luxury – and faces up to 115 years behind bars when he is sentenced in March.