Former cryptocurrency magnate Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty Thursday by a jury in New York of all charges against him of fraud, embezzlement and criminal conspiracy.

The jury reached a decision after five weeks of trial, and Bankman-Fried now faces a maximum prison sentence of 110 years for the seven charges. The verdict will be announced on March 28, 2024.

The federal trial, which lasted more than a month, was a tough test for Bankman-Fried after some of her closest associates testified that He played a key role in all the decisions that led to approximately $8 billion disappearing from the FTX trading platform.

Bankman-Fried, 31, was until late last year the wonder boy of the cryptocurrency industry with an estimated fortune of $26 billion, according to Fortune magazine, before the spectacular collapse of his empire.

In their closing arguments, prosecutors portrayed the suspect as a highly intelligent man, consumed by greed, who knew what he was doing when FTX funds were secretly funneled into an investment fund under his control.

“Find him guilty,” U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon said earlier Thursday.

“He was ambitious” and had “the arrogance to think he could get away with fraud,” he added.

The defense said his client had acted “in good faith” and was overwhelmed by the circumstances and the financial incompetence of his associates. closest friends who testified against him to reach settlements with prosecutors.

Millionaire and risky investments

The key witness at the trial was Bankman-Fried’s former colleague and occasional girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, who told the jury they stole “approximately $14 billion” from customers of cryptocurrency platform FTX before it went bankrupt last year.

The money was used to support Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s personal hedge fund for which he appointed Ellison as CEO.

In November 2022 the FTX cryptocurrency empire imploded with huge withdrawal requests from users who panicked when they learned that some FTX funds was involved in risky investments by Alameda Research.

That money had been used to finance venture investment deals, political contributions and expensive properties in the Bahamas.

They also had to pay tens of millions of dollars to celebrities, including Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen, to show their support for FTX and to buy the naming rights to the Miami Heat stadium. (JO)