Crypto #FTX Sam Bankman-Fried Found Guilty, Sentenced to 110 Years in Prison

Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty of fraud and money laundering. Reported from several sources, Sam, whose full name is Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried, was found guilty of stealing billions of dollars from the accounts of customers of his rapidly growing FTX crypto exchange. In addition, Sam was also found guilty of defrauding lenders to FTX's sister company, Alameda Research, which stored FX customer funds in bank accounts. Furthermore, Sam was also said to have defrauded investors at FTX and laundered money.

According to US Attorney General Merrick Garland, Sam considered himself above the law. However, today's verdict proves that the law applies to everyone. "This case should send a clear message to anyone who tries to hide their crimes behind something new that they claim and no one else is smart enough to understand," said Merrick, quoted on Sunday (11/5/2023).

On the other hand, Sam's lawyers expressed their disappointment. According to attorney Mark Cohen in a statement, Sam was found not guilty. As a result, his party will continue to fight hard to fight the charges against his client. "We respect the jury's decision. However, we are very disappointed with the results," said Mark.

For information, FTX was once one of the most trusted transaction companies in the crypto world. However, on November 11, 2022, FTX was declared bankrupt after a document leak related to an odd financial transaction between FTX and another company owned by Sam. As a result, investor confidence in FTX decreased and they rushed to withdraw their investments from the cryptocurrency trading platform. This panic also caused the value of crypto to drop by trillions of dollars. This also caused around 1 million customers to lose money and FTX began to be abandoned. Since then, this platform has been closely monitored by regulators, investors, and the crypto community.