FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Found Guilty in his Crimanal Trial

In a shock­ing ver­dict, a jury has found Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of now col­lapsed cryp­to exchange FTX, guilty on all counts in his crim­i­nal trial. 

The dis­graced entre­pre­neur, once nick­named the “Cryp­to King”, showed signs of despair after being con­vict­ed on two counts of wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud con­spir­a­cy, and one count each of secu­ri­ties fraud con­spir­a­cy and mon­ey laun­der­ing conspiracy. 

Legal experts were stunned by the swift guilty ver­dict, deliv­ered after just a few hours of jury deliberation.

With each fraud charge car­ry­ing up to 20 years and the con­spir­a­cy counts up to 5 years each, Bankman-Fried is star­ing at a poten­tial 110 year sen­tence. Pros­e­cu­tors pre­sent­ed over­whelm­ing evi­dence that he mis­ap­pro­pri­at­ed bil­lions from FTX user deposits to fund his lav­ish lifestyle and polit­i­cal spending. 

The defen­dant now awaits harsh pun­ish­ment at his March 28 sentencing.

The dra­mat­ic down­fall of the 30-year-old whiz kid, who just last year was hailed as a vision­ary, has shocked the cryp­to world. His future appears bleak as author­i­ties seek to make an exam­ple of him. 

With the high­est-pro­file cryp­to fraud pros­e­cu­tion in his­to­ry reach­ing its cli­max, experts warn oth­ers against illic­it activ­i­ties for fear of wind­ing up behind bars. 

Bankman-Fried tried to por­tray him­self as a vic­tim of his own suc­cess, but the jury was­n’t fooled by his excus­es. Jus­tice has been served in this case, show­ing no one is above the law, even bil­lion­aire CEOs.