Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Found Guilty Of Fraud

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former CEO of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has been found guilty of fraud. The announcement happened at 7:45 p.m. Eastern Time on November 2 following several hours of jury deliberation, according to CNN. The results arrived nearly a full year after FTX's sudden and dramatic downfall, though the case is far from over — Bankman-Fried's attorney Mark Cohen said in a statement following the verdict that the former CEO "maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him."

While the verdict is in, sentencing is still months away, with U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan announcing a March 28, 2024, date for the occasion. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams spoke to the press following the verdict, making it clear that the strong convictions he shared in December 2022 haven't changed. Williams is quoted as saying, "These players like Sam Bankman-Fried might be new, but this kind of fraud, this kind of corruption, is as old as time." 

This moment is ultimately rooted in a November 2022 report published by Coindesk, which first shed light on the questionable finances behind FTX and SBF's hedge fund Alameda Research. A bank run soon followed, and FTX's house of cards rapidly collapsed. Competing company Binance had swooped in with plans to acquire FTX, something that was complicated by its prior — and suitably cryptic — decision to dump its FTT, which was FTX's own crypto token. 

Within days, however, Binance suddenly backed out of the deal. The Department of Justice was very interested in getting details on what led to that reversal, and both the DOJ and SEC had been investigating the crypto company. Fast-forward to December 21, 2022, and both former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang had charges filed against them. 

That same week, Bankman-Fried was extradited to the U.S. and, initially, into the custody of his parents. However, SBF found himself behind bars in mid-August 2023 over concerns about potential witness tampering. With the verdict out of the way, Bankman-Fried has been returned to the same Brooklyn detention center to await sentencing.