Perpetrating a financial hoax that rivals Bernie Madoff, disgraced crypto-wonder kid Sam Bankman- Fried was convicted on numerous fraud charges and faces 110 years in prison.
Standing trial in New York after being extradited from the Bahamas, where he ran his scam from a $35 million ocean-front penthouse, the founder of the once-high-flying FTX crypto trading platform was found guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. He was accused of stealing upwards of $10 billion from his customers, though the full breadth of his financial crimes will take years to unravel. He had funneled client assets to his trading firm, Alameda Research, where his inexperienced associates made wild, money-losing bets before they were rounded up and testified against him.
The fraudster incorporated practically the entire spectrum of the nation’s political and corporate structure, funneling millions in contributions primarily to Democrats, while shielding himself from scrutiny by embracing the Woke culture of the Left. He was featured on the covers of Forbes and Fortune magazines and was hailed in Washington as a crypto expert, even being called by former House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters to advise on money matters. NFL superstar Tom Brady raked in $55 million to hype the bankrupt FTX exchange, and basketball greats Shaquille O’Neal and Stephen Curry were also enlisted. The quarterback, along with his ex-wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, and baseball hall-of-famer David Ortiz, were among the glitterati now embroiled in lawsuits stemming from the crime.
 |
| Sam Bankman-Fried in an interview during the Bitcoin 2021 conference. Cointelegraph | Wikipedia |
Just days before his scheme collapsed, Bankman-Fried assured clients that his operations were solvent. Nevertheless, they scurried to cash out, and the house of cards came tumbling down. The supposed crypto wizard, whose trademark was a distracted countenance and shabby appearance, testified that he never intended to defraud his customers. But U.S. Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York stood in disagreement. “Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history — a multibillion-dollar scheme designed to make him the King of Crypto — but while the cryptocurrency industry might be new and the players like Sam Bankman-Fried might be new, this kind of corruption is as old as time. This case has always been about lying, cheating, and stealing, and we have no patience for it.”
In the Nov. 2 jury verdict, Bankman-Fried was convicted of two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, two counts of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He also was convicted of conspiracy to commit commodities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, each of which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.