Summary
We’re closing the blog – thanks for following live coverage this evening. Here are some key links and takeaways:
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, was found guilty on all counts of defrauding his customers in Manhattan federal court.
The seven counts were of wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money, and Bankman-Fried is facing decades in prison.
The trial shattered Bankman-Fried’s wunderkind image and brought down his allies, the Guardian US tech editor Blake Montgomery wrote.
The judge set 28 March 2024 for sentencing.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyer said in a short statement that his client “maintains his innocence” and plans to continue to fight the charges.
The US attorney said Bankman-Fried perpetrated “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history” and that “this kind of corruption is as old as time”.
The jury reached a verdict after just four hours of deliberation.
Bankman-Fried is still facing additional charges, but prosecutors have until February to decide whether the case will proceed.
Sam Bankman-Fried is still facing multiple counts of foreign bribery conspiracy and bank fraud that were scheduled for a separate trial due to start in March 2024, the same month he is supposed to be sentenced.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, however, today asked prosecutors to provide an update by February on whether that case will proceed.
The US attorney Damian Williams told reporters that Bankman-Fried “perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history, a multibillion-dollar scheme designed to make him the king of crypto”.
Updated
