Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. Insider reporter Jacob Shamsian fills you in on how the former crypto billionaire got here.
Sam Bankman-Fried testified before a jury for the first time on Friday saying he did not defraud FTX customers or take their funds, according to Bloomberg’s live reporting of the trial.
The trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried reached its halfway point, and a flurry of incriminating evidence, emotional testimonies, and odd tales have surfaced in the last three weeks.
Sam Bankman Fried allegedly entertained a plan to raise capital from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison in her testimony on Wednesday.
Fear, uncertainty, and doubt around Alameda Research’s relationship with his FTX cryptocurrency exchange caused Sam Bankman-Fried to consider shuttering the trading platform in 2022, according to an unpublished tweet thread revealed in his trial on Monday.
Last year, it took reporters digging into Alameda Research’s balance sheet to finally show that ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s big crypto house of cards was built on a shaky bedrock of customer funds.
Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images; Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Anadolu Agency / Getty
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; REUTERS/Carlo Allegri; Stephen Brashear/Getty Images