2023-11-03 17:38:46
The founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, was found guilty by a New York jury of the seven crimes of fraud and money laundering with which he was charged. The 12-member jury (nine women and three men) delivered its verdict late Thursday afternoon, after a trial that lasted almost a month and in which the US Federal Prosecutor’s Office defined the accused, of 31 years old, as a fraudster who stole money from thousands of victims.
Perspective Writing
Bankman-Fried now faces a maximum sentence of more than one hundred years for the seven crimes, which include several counts of fraud and money laundering.
The accused sat as a witness during the last three days of the hearings, and took the opportunity to distance himself from the bad decisions at FTX and its sister company, Alameda Research; point out his former allies, who cooperate with the Prosecutor’s Office, and reiterate that he had no bad intentions, but acknowledged that he did not measure up and failed in risk management.
The deputy prosecutor, Danielle Sassoon, subjected Bankman-Fried to harsh questioning, pointing out contradictions between his private and public statements and obtaining his confession, for example, that FTX gave a large line of privileged credit to Alameda, which used the funds of clients to “play,” as he stated in closing arguments.
Federal prosecutor Damian Williams, who is in charge of overseeing the process, has called it one of the biggest frauds in US history. Meanwhile, the court heard that FTX had so far recovered $5 billion in cash, cryptocurrencies and securities, with “plans to monetize more than 300 other non-strategic investments” worth $4.6 billion.
HOW DID FTX OPERATE?
FTX, which was one of the largest cryptocurrency platforms in the world and was valued at 30,131 million euros. It collapsed in November 2022 after many users rushed to withdraw their funds amid reports that questioned the company’s solvency.
Bankman-Fried was accused of diverting nearly $9 billion from FTX clients for other purposes and will face another similar trial in March, in which he is accused of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). ).
Sam Bankman-Fried became known in the business world when he turned his FTX platform into the second largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, amassing a gigantic fortune in the process.
FTX pursued an aggressive marketing campaign associating itself with the names of stars such as Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen or American basketball star Stephen Curry.
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