Following the highly publicized fraud trial, FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been found guilty on all charges. Indeed, following deliberation, the juror issued a guilty verdict on seven charges, meaning the one-time crypto mogul is set to face more than 110 years in prison.The case followed the devastating collapse of FTX, which at one time was one of the strongest brands in the industry. Subsequently, Bankman-Fried and his defense attorneys were unable to prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that he defrauded investors through the exchange.Bankman-Fried Found Guilty on Fraud ChargesThe fall of FTX has been described as one of the largest financial crimes in American history. Indeed, it is certainly the greatest controversy to face the digital asset industry in its history. Now, the man who created and ran the exchange is set to face justice.Following a trial that dominated the news cycle, Sam Bankman-Fried has been found guilty on all seven charges issued against him. The jurors deliberated after closing arguments were issued by both sides on November 1st. Subsequently, they concluded that Bankman-Fried maintained culpability for the company’s downfall.Throughout the trial, Bankman-Fried attempted to convince jurors of his innocence. Specifically, he had continued a defense that began with a media tour following the exchange’s collapse. Bankman-Fried has consistently assured the public that the collapse was a result of his ignorance, not malice. Yet, the jurors seemingly did not believe the defense set forth.Many had predicted that Bankman-Fried would face conviction. Yet, there remained the belief that the overarching dysfunction of the platform as a whole would absolve him of sole responsibility. Conversely, jurors have instead agreed with the prosecution, finding Bankman-Fried guilty.Bankman-Fried sat motionless at the defense table in a grey suit. He was made to stand and face the jury for the reading. He showed no emotion.#FTX's #Fraud #CryptoNews🔒📰🚫

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's spectacular rise and fall in the cryptocurrency industry — a journey that included his testimony before Congress, a Super Bowl advertisement and dreams of a future run for president — hit rock bottom Thursday when a New York jury convicted him of fraud in a scheme that cheated customers and investors of at least $10 billion.After the monthlong trial, jurors rejected Bankman-Fried's claim during four days on the witness stand in Manhattan federal court that he never committed fraud or meant to cheat customers before FTX, once the world's second-largest crypto exchange, collapsed into bankruptcy a year ago."His crimes caught up to him. His crimes have been exposed," Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon told the jury of the onetime billionaire just before they were read the law by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan and began deliberations. Sassoon said Bankman-Fried turned his customers' accounts into his "personal piggy bank" as up to $14 billion disappeared.She urged jurors to reject Bankman-Fried's insistence when he testified over three days that he never committed fraud or plotted to steal from customers, investors and lenders and didn't realize his companies were at least $10 billion in debt until October 2022.Bankman-Fried was required to stand and face the jury as guilty verdicts on all seven counts were read. He kept his hands clasped tightly in front of him. When he sat down after the reading, he kept his head tilted down for several minutes.After the judge set a sentencing date of March 28, Bankman-Fried's parents moved to the front row behind him. His father put his arm around his wife. As Bankman-Fried was led out of the courtroom, he looked back and nodded toward his mother, who nodded back and then became emotional, wiping her hand across her face after he left the room.U.S. Attorney Damian Williams told reporters after the verdict that Bankman-Fried "perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history, a multibillion-dollar scheme designed to make him the king of crypto."$BNB "But here's the thing: The cryptocurrency industry might be new. The players like Sam Bankman-Fried might be new. This kind of fraud, this kind of corruption is as old as time, and we have no patience for it," he said.Bankman-Fried's attorney, Mark Cohen, said in a statement they "respect the jury's decision. But we are very disappointed with the result.""Mr. Bankman Fried maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him," Cohen said.The trial attracted intense interest with its focus on fraud on a scale not seen since the 2009 prosecution of Bernard Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme over decades cheated thousands of investors out of about $20 billion. Madoff pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 150 years in prison, where he died in 2021.The prosecution of Bankman-Fried, 31, put a spotlight on the emerging industry of cryptocurrency and a group of young executives in their 20s who lived together in a $30 million luxury apartment in the Bahamas as they dreamed of becoming the most powerful player in a new financial field.Prosecutors made sure jurors knew that the defendant they saw in court with short hair and a suit was also the man with big messy hair and shorts that became his trademark appearance after he started his cryptocurrency hedge fund, Alameda Research, in 2017 and FTX, his cryptocurrency exchange, two years laterThey showed the jury pictures of Bankman-Fried sleeping on a private jet, sitting with a deck of cards and mingling at the Super Bowl with celebrities including the singer Katy Perry. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos called Bankman-Fried someone who liked "celebrity chasing."In a closing argument, defense lawyer Mark Cohen said prosecutors were trying to turn "Sam into some sort of villain, some sort of monster.""It's both wrong and unfair, and I hope and believe that you have seen that it's simply not true," he said. "According to the government, everything Sam ever touched and said was fraudulent."The government relied heavily on the testimony of three former members of Bankman-Fried's inner circle, his top executives including his former girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, to explain how Bankman-Fried used Alameda Research to siphon billions of dollars from customer accounts at FTX.With that money, prosecutors said, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate gained influence and power through investments, contributions, tens of millions of dollars in political contributions, congressional testimony and a publicity campaign that enlisted celebrities like comedian Larry David and football quarterback Tom Brady.#tia Ellison, 28, testified that Bankman-Fried directed her while she was chief executive of Alameda Research to commit fraud as he pursued ambitions to lead huge companies, spend money influentially and run for U.S. president someday. She said he thought he had a 5% chance to be U.S. president someday.Becoming tearful as she described the collapse of the cryptocurrency empire last November, Ellison said the revelations that caused customers collectively to demand their money back, exposing the fraud, brought a "relief that I didn't have to lie anymore."FTX cofounder Gary Wang, who was FTX's chief technology officer, revealed in his testimony that Bankman-Fried directed him to insert code into FTX's operations so that Alameda Research could make unlimited withdrawals from FTX and have a credit line of up to $65 billion. Wang said the money came from customers.Nishad Singh, the former head of engineering at FTX, testified that he felt "blindsided and horrified" at the result of the actions of a man he once admired when he saw the extent of the fraud as the collapse last November left him suicidal.#FTX's Ellison, Wang and Singh all pleaded guilty to fraud charges and testified against Bankman-Fried in the hopes of leniency at sentencing.Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas in December and extradited to the United States, where he was freed on a $250 million personal recognizance bond with electronic monitoring and a requirement that he remain at the home of his parents in Palo Alto, California.His communications, including hundreds of phone calls with journalists and internet influencers, along with emails and texts, eventually got him into trouble when the judge concluded he was trying to influence prospective trial witnesses and ordered him jailed in August.$USDC During the trial, prosecutors used Bankman-Fried's public statements, online announcements and his congressional testimony against him, showing how the entrepreneur repeatedly promised customers that their deposits were safe and secure as late as last Nov. 7 when he tweeted, "FTX is fine. Assets are fine" as customers furiously tried to withdraw their money. He deleted the tweet the next day. FTX filed for bankruptcy four days later.$MEME In his closing, Roos mocked Bankman-Fried's testimony, saying that under questioning from his lawyer, the defendant's words were "smooth, like it had been rehearsed a bunch of times?"But under cross examination, "he was a different person," the prosecutor said. "Suddenly on cross-examination he couldn't remember a single detail about his company or what he said publicly. It was uncomfortable to hear. He never said he couldn't recall during his direct examination, but it happened over 140 times during his cross-examination."#CryptoMoj Former federal prosecutors said the quick verdict — after only half a day of deliberation — showed how well the government tried the case."The government tried the case as we expected," said Joshua A. Naftalis, a partner at Pallas Partners LLP and a former Manhattan prosecutor. "It was a massive fraud, but that doesn't mean it had to be a complicated fraud, and I think the jury understood that argument.#CryptoNews🔒📰🚫

1. Bitfinex and Tether's Transparency Stand: - Bitfinex and Tether decide against opposing a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request initiated by news publications, affirming a commitment to transparent information sharing. - The FOIL request stems from a 2021 agreement in New York, addressing allegations of $850 million fund commingling. Both companies paid fines and agreed to quarterly attestation reports.2. Do Kwon's Legal Journey: - Montenegro court approves the extradition of Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon to either South Korea or the United States. - Kwon, previously sentenced to four months in Montenegro for using a forged passport, awaits the final extradition decision from Montenegro's minister of justice.3. Unconventional Trading in Prison: SBF's Mackerel Dealings: - Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, currently incarcerated, reportedly trades mackerel (a prison commodity) for services. - Mackerel, a popular prison currency, is sold for $1.30 per packet at the Metropolitan Detention Center.4. KyberSwap's Sophisticated Attack: - Decentralized finance expert analyzes the $46 million KyberSwap attack, revealing a complex smart contract exploit. - The attacker exploited an "infinite money glitch" specific to KyberSwap's concentrated liquidity implementation. - Steps involved borrowing 10,000 Wrapped Ether (wETH) from Aave, tricking the contract into believing it had more liquidity than actual.5. KyberSwap's Fallout: - KyberSwap's total value locked (TVL) plunges by 68% after the attack, reaching a low of around $27 million. - Previous TVL highs of $134 million in 2023 highlight the significant impact of the exploit on the platform.In a day marked by legal decisions, transparency pledges, unconventional prison trades, and sophisticated crypto attacks, the intricate steps of each event contribute to the ever-evolving narrative in the crypto space.#BTC #ETH #FTX's #KyberSwap #LUNC $BTC $FTT $LUNA

In the courtroom drama surrounding the downfall of the once-mighty FTX cryptocurrency exchange, the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried has entered its final chapter. The prosecution and defense presented closing arguments that couldn’t have been more contrasting.As reported by crypto journalist Laura Shin, assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Rooe, leading the prosecution, used evidence, timelines, and the defendant’s own words to portray Sam Bankman-Fried as a liar who stole from customers while maintaining a facade of innocence. Rooe argued that Bankman-Fried knew he was doing something wrong, stressing deception, lies, and greed as central themes.He called attention to Bankman-Fried’s contradictory statements, pointing out his confident public assurances about FTX’s health despite his awareness of the exchange’s dire financial situation. He alleged that Bankman-Fried’s actions betrayed his knowledge of wrongdoing.Rooe stated, “He told a story and he lied to you. This was a pyramid of deceit built by the defendant on a foundation of lies and false promises, all to get money, and eventually it collapsed, leaving countless victims in its wake.”In contrast, Bankman-Fried’s defense, led by Mark Cohen, sought to discredit the government’s portrayal of the defendant as a villain. Cohen argued that the government unfairly painted his client as a criminal mastermind, using evidence about Bankman-Fried’s physical appearance and personal life to cast him as a villain in their narrative.Cohen contended that miscommunications, mistakes, and lapses in judgment occurred in the real world, but they did not constitute criminal acts. He questioned the government’s focus on Bankman-Fried’s motivations and intentions, highlighting the lack of evidence of criminal intent in their case.With both sides having made their closing arguments, the jury is now set to begin deliberations. The outcome of this high-stakes trial, closely watched by the cryptocurrency community and beyond, remains uncertain. Deliberations may continue into the evening, and the trial’s conclusion is eagerly awaited.#ftx #FTX's #IluPredictor #sbf #coinbase