New York: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on Thursday of defrauding customers of his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange in one of the biggest financial frauds on record, a verdict that cemented the 31-year-old former billionaire’s fall from grace. A 12-member jury in Manhattan federal court convicted him on all seven counts he faced after a monthlong trial in which prosecutors made the case that he stole $8 billion ($12.44 billion) from the exchange’s customers out of sheer greed. The verdict came just shy of one year after FTX filed for bankruptcy in a swift corporate meltdown that shocked financial markets and erased his estimated $26 billion personal fortune. The jury reached the verdict after just over four hours of deliberations. Bankman-Fried stood and clasped his hands together as the verdict was read. Bankman-Fried, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate whose mother and father are both Stanford University law professors, had pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy.
Ex-crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried convicted of defrauding FTX customers
