Cryptocurrency king Bankman Fried is convicted and faces life imprisonment – Corriere.it

NEW YORK – Yesterday, nine women and three men – including a high school librarian, a Metro-North train engineer, a retired investment fund manager, and two immigrants, one from Ukraine and one from Hong Kong – decided their fate.
Sam Bankman Fried
: Founder FTX cryptocurrency And the relevant market, addressed a New York His companies, in which he invested several billion dollars, collapsed and disappeared into thin air Savers In these works. the Technology financier whose collection, in a few years, reached $32 billion and then declined even more rapidly to zero, was called upon to answer Seven counts: from Financial fraud In the Conspiracy To allocate savers’ assets for money laundering. The jury recognized this Guilty in all seven cases.

Bankman Fried takes risks life sentence: Five charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years each, and two carry a maximum sentence of 5 years. The exact amount of the penalty will be determined By the judge on March 28. It will definitely be very heavy. In another stunning technology fraud trial celebrated in recent years, Elizabeth Holmesfounder of Theranos, a company that promised to revolutionize diagnostics with new blood-analysis techniques, was convicted in California To 11 years and three months in prison after a jury found her guilty of the crimes, she faced a maximum sentence of 80 years, less than Bankman’s 110-year sentence.

He started on October 4the practical It was surprisingly quick: less than a month and a few hours of deliberation to reach the goal Unanimous ruling. Bankman Fried, as reckless in his financial adventures as in his media strategy, is yet to come FTX breakdown Against the advice of his lawyer, he relied on an endless series of television and online interviews to try to clear himself. He was accused and triedHe played his last reckless card a week ago by announcing his willingness to testify and be questioned by the prosecution. It was not a winning move: Defendants They usually avoid it because it is risky. Bankman didn’t listen to the reason. And he may have had no other choice: his fate already seemed in jeopardy when his three closest associates – including Carolyn Ellison, his ex-girlfriend and manager of the Alameda fund where FTX’s money illegally ended up – pleaded guilty and the company’s director was removed. Bankman Fried, claiming that they were always acting on his orders.

At that point, he was overwhelmed by the accusations Young tech financier He still hoped to save himself by appearing before the jury as A.J Visionary businessmanBold and naive, he was convinced that he had found a new way to produce wealth for everyone: yet he committed mistakes In series that destroyed that wealth instead of doubling it. The thesis of the clumsy person who made a mistake in good faith did not stand up to cross-examination on Monday and Tuesday: Sam responded to a barrage of statements Complaints From the Public Prosecutor Daniel Sassoon With some I don’t remember and I’m not sure, but she refreshed his memory by showing off to the jury a series of interviews in which Bankman-Fried got into trouble on his own.

Incredible lightness of Young businessman In handling (and transferring) billions of other people’s money, his disdain for rules (he used clichés to say it was useless Monitoring body) It would be difficult to understand if you take into account Sam’s parents, Joe Bankman and Barbara Friedare trusted teachers of Stanford University Law. Yesterday they were both indoors court. They wouldn’t have known for some time that their son had ended up in a dead end, but they still cried when it was announced. to rule. And now the sights will be on their elimination, too: lawyers trying to recover the money Sam wasted to compensate the defrauded investors as much as possible have set their sights on the $16 million donated to them by them. son. Money and giftsIncluding a villa in the Bahamas. According to investigators, who filed a civil complaint against the couple, the compensation Sam made to his parents in exchange for their contribution to the creation of his cryptocurrency empire.