Top trial verdicts of 2023: Sam Bankman-Fried

Top trial verdicts of 2023: Sam Bankman-Fried

Also in November, a Manhattan federal court found Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of a bankrupt and fraudulent cryptocurrency company, guilty of defrauding investors, customers and lenders who took part in his collapsed crypto empire in one of two criminal trials that he faced.

Bankman-Fried was charged with two counts of wire fraud and five conspiracy counts. Prosecutors argued that the 31-year-old founder of FTX and its sister hedge fund, Alameda Research, misappropriated and embezzled billions of dollars in FTX customer deposits, scheming to mislead investors and instructing other executives at his businesses to do the same.

The FTX founder, who accumulated an estimated net worth of $26 billion before his company declared bankruptcy last year, also testified during his own trial, where he admitted to making mistakes but insisted that he never defrauded anyone.