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upstart writes:

Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty in FTX crypto fraud case:

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been found guilty on all seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering following more than two weeks of testimony in one of the highest-profile financial crime cases in years.

The 31-year-old former cryptocurrency billionaire was convicted of two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, two counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, charges that each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He was also convicted of conspiracy to commit commodities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, which each carry a five-year maximum sentence.

"Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest frauds in American history, a multibillion-dollar scheme designed to make him the king of crypto," Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a news briefing following the verdict. "Here's the thing: the cryptocurrency industry might be new. The players like Sam Bankman-Fried might be new. This kind of fraud, this kind of corruption, is as old as time, and we have no patience for it."

The MIT graduate steadfastly maintained his innocence since his arrest late last year after the startling implosion of FTX, the crypto exchange he co-founded, amid an $8 billion shortfall in funds and allegations he had used customer money to prop up his struggling hedge fund, Alameda Research.

[...] Defense attorneys sought to portray Bankman-Fried as a math nerd who made poor management decisions at FTX, but who had nothing criminal in mind while building his crypto empire.

In the end, it was perhaps the hubristic display during Bankman-Fried's own testimony that bore the most weight, and did the most damage. Under the prosecution's cross-examination, Bankman-Fried said "over 140 times" that he couldn't remember a document, conversation or other key details. The government said, again and again, that was because "he was lying."

[...] It is now up to the judge, Lewis Kaplan, to determine what Bankman-Fried's sentence will be. While the charges carry a statutory minimum of 110 years, and sentencing guidelines provide a type of formula, the judge has wide-ranging discretion to rule below that guidance. However, CBS News legal analyst Rikki Klieman says if Judge Kaplan "believes the defendant was committing perjury in his courtroom, he might even go above the guidelines."

For her part, Tien, the former FTX employee, said that jail time might too harsh, wondering if Bankman-Fried could perhaps instead help the government investigate other potential crypto-trading fraud.

The next trial in the saga of the United States vs. Sam Bankman-Fried is scheduled for March, 11, 2024, when other charges that the government did not bring forward will be folded into yet another court proceeding.

This trial concludes almost one year to the day FTX stopped allowing customers to withdraw deposits, which marked the beginning of the end of the so-called crypto king's meteoric rise.

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