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Sam Bankman-Fried is now officially a convicted criminal, as yesterday a Manhattan jury found him guilty of stealing more than $8 billion from his cryptocurrency users.
The FTX founder’s month-long case came to a close after just a four-hour deliberation. The 12-member jury convicted him on two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy. The sentencing will take place in March of next year.
Bankman-Fried is expected to face decades in prison. The verdict comes just one year after FTX filed for bankruptcy in a move that shocked financial markets and erased his estimated $26 billion personal fortune.
Manhattan’s top prosecutor, Damian Williams, championed the victory outside the courthouse and issued a warning to any other crypto fraudsters looking for financial gain.
But Williams isn’t done yet. Bankman-Fried is set to go on trial in March of next year on a second set of charges, including foreign bribery and bank fraud conspiracies.