Sam Bankman-Fried’s empire continues to collapse. Accused in particular of fraud, criminal conspiracy and money laundering, the former billionaire was found guilty of seven counts, Thursday, November 2, by a jury in New York, after five weeks of a trial resounding.
The fallen cryptocurrency star faces up to 110 years in prison in total. Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan set Sam Bankman-Fried’s sentencing announcement for March 28, 2024.
The jury found him guilty of using, without their knowledge, funds deposited by customers of his cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX, which went bankrupt in November 2022. The money fueled the transactions and risky investments of his investment company, Alameda Research, whose borrowings from the platform reached up to around 14 billion dollars (13 billion euros).
“Sam Bankman-Fried committed one of the biggest financial frauds in American history”Manhattan federal prosecutor Damian Williams said after the verdict was read. “A multi-billion dollar scheme designed to make him the king of crypto. »
“Appetite for greatness”
It was a success for the prosecution, which buried the accused under millions of documents, several of which were damning, as well as the testimonies of three of his former close collaborators, including his former girlfriend. All claimed to have acted under the direction of their former boss, who was in charge of all the key decisions that enabled the misappropriation of client money and senseless risk-taking by Alameda.
“Who was in control? That’s the question.”had launched, Wednesday at the hearing, the deputy prosecutor Nicolas Roos. “It was one person: the accused. »
Danielle Sassoon, Damian Williams’ representative, described him as a “talented boss”, ” ambitious “Who “marveled” the public, the press and even the elected representatives of Congress, who heard him three times. “He’s someone who wanted to become president of the United States”, she recalled. Consumed by his appetite for grandeur, he wanted to make FTX the first global cryptocurrency exchange platform, according to her. In his race, “he wanted to spend billions from his clients’ accounts to gain power and relationships”said the deputy prosecutor. “He had the arrogance to think he could commit fraud and get away with it. »
He pleaded good faith
“SBF”, aged 31, had pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. He admitted, at the hearing, to “big mistakes”, but has always denied knowingly breaking the law. His lawyer, Mark Cohen, accused the prosecutor of presenting him as a ” monster “A ” wicked “, by caricaturing his actions and his personality. Rather, he portrayed him as a young entrepreneur lacking experience, who had acted in good faith.
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The young thirty-year-old had chosen to testify at his trial, a rare initiative because it was considered too risky. But this hearing, failing to strengthen him, further weakened the former crypto educator, with superior intelligence, showing himself to be elusive and convoluted under the fire of the prosecution’s questions.
Sam Bankman-Fried also tried to accuse his former colleagues, sometimes accusing them of incompetence, sometimes of having warned him too late or insufficiently of Alameda’s financial situation.
To exonerate the accused, “you would have to believe that he understood nothing” of what was happening within his own companies, launched Mr. Roos. “You’ve been following this entire trial and you know none of it is true.”he insisted to the jury.
“Now it’s up to you to decide who to believe.”, Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan told the twelve jurors, before they retired to deliberate on Thursday. It took them less than five hours to deliver an unsurprising verdict.
The weakened world of cryptocurrencies
“The cryptocurrency industry may be new, with new players like Sam Bankman-Fried, but this type of fraud, corruption, is as old as time”commented Damian Williams.
“We respect the jury’s decision, but we are very disappointed with the result”reacted Mark Cohen. “Mr. Bankman-Fried maintains that he is innocent and will continue to vigorously contest the charges against him”he added.
For the federal prosecutor, Thursday’s verdict “is a message, a warning to all the crooks who think they are untouchable, who think their crimes are too complex for us to catch”. “Let them think twice”he warned. “If they persist, we will have enough handcuffs for everyone. »
In just a few months, Sam Bankman-Fried, a physics graduate from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had turned a small start-up, launched in 2019, into the world’s second largest cryptocurrency trading platform. But a year ago, the CoinDesk media revealed that a considerable part of Alameda’s assets consisted of a cryptocurrency created by FTX, FTT. The revelation caused the collapse of this digital currency, and the beginning of the stations of the cross for Sam Bankman-Fried. Extradited from the Bahamas, where FTX’s headquarters were located, the ex-billionaire, whose fortune evaporated, was indicted in mid-December 2022.
The bankruptcy of FTX, which came after six months of turbulence and other failures, penalized the world of cryptocurrencies, which is barely recovering from this crossing of the desert.