Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty Thursday on all seven fraud and conspiracy charges against him, in a jury verdict that was startling for how quickly it came—after less than five hours of deliberation.
For the reading of the verdict, Bankman-Fried stood, turned slightly toward the jury members, and gave no visible reaction as the forewoman of the jury—made up of three men and nine women—read “Guilty” on each charge. After the jury left and the judge made final remarks, Bankman-Fried talked with his two lawyers, his head hanging, nodding frequently. Led to a courtroom exit by marshals, he turned back briefly, nodded, and gave a sad smile to his parents, Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, who had left their seats in the gallery and were waiting for him but did not speak to him.
After a five-week trial, the verdict is a stinging rebuke to the ambitious plans of the once-CEO and founder—and to his defense that regardless of all Bankman-Fried did, he meant well. It comes, rather hauntingly, exactly one year after his companies FTX and Alameda began their 10-day implosion. On November 2, 2022, a crypto publication revealed that Alameda’s balance sheet had deep problems; by November 11, the companies were in bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried was out as CEO.
As the first “Guilty” was read, Fried, who had been visibly shaking and biting her lip ahead of the verdict, looked at the floor, as did Bankman. Once the reading was over, Bankman-Fried sat, adjusted himself in his seat, then was quite still as the proceedings continued. When the jury was polled and each member said that they agreed with the verdict, Bankman bent over in his seat. Soon after, Fried plugged her ears with her fingers, then clasped her hands together over her nose and under the bridge of her glasses. She chewed her lip, her jaw shaking.
“The cryptocurrency industry might be new, the players like Sam Bankman-Fried might be new, but this kind of fraud, this kind of corruption, is old as time, and we have no patience for it,” said Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, outside of the courthouse. “This case moved at lightning speed; that was not a coincidence. That was a choice. It is also a message; it is a warning.”
Williams, who had attended portions of the trial, sat in the front of the gallery for the verdict. The “speed” he referred to was the unusually short period between FTX’s collapse in November 2022, and two of Bankman-Fried’s colleagues—Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang—pleading guilty and cooperating against him the following month, when Bankman-Fried was arrested.
Outside the courthouse, Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried’s attorney also gave a statement: “We respect the jury’s decision; we are very disappointed in the result. My client, Mr. Bankman-Fried, maintains his innocence, and we’re going to continue to vigorously fight.”
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan set sentencing for March 28.
For more on the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, you can follow all of Fast Company’s coverage from the courtroom here.
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