Bankman-Fried Convicted: Faces Up to 110 Years in Prison for $8 Billion Cryptocurrency Scandal

The court ruled after a five-week trial, and Bankman-Fried now faces up to 110 years behind bars. Judgment will be announced at a later date.

In a federal lawsuit, some of his closest associates testified that he was primarily responsible for all the decisions that led to the disappearance of eight billion dollars from the cryptocurrency exchange he founded, FTX.

Bankman-Fried, 31, was a celebrity in the cryptocurrency industry until late last year, with Fortune magazine estimating his fortune at $26 billion before his empire spectacularly collapsed.

In closing arguments, prosecutors portrayed the defendant as a highly intelligent man consumed by greed who knew what he was doing when FTX funds were secretly diverted to his personal hedge fund.

The key witness in the lawsuit was Bankman-Fried’s former associate and girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who said they had stolen about $14 billion from clients of the FTX cryptocurrency trading platform before it went bankrupt late last year.

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

2023-11-03 06:17:00
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