The Trial of Sam Bankman-Fried

A panel of federal appeals judges appeared highly skeptical Tuesday of an attempt by Sam Bankman-Fried’s attorneys to see the onetime crypto mogul’s historic conviction overturned. During a court hearing in lower Manhattan, the judges pressed Bankman-Fried’s new attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, on the merits of her arguments as to why the disgraced FTX founder’s 25-year sentence should be overturned.  Last year, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to a quarter century in prison for seven counts of fraud, mo...

Ryan Salame, the former CEO of FTX Digital Markets, says he had nothing to do with the massive fraud that lost the exchange’s customers over $10 billion—and his “best friend” Sam Trabucco, who once led Alameda Research, has attested to that in writing. In a Tuesday court filing, Salame’s lawyers argued that their client was “not part of Sam Bankman-Fried’s innermost circle” who knew about the fraud at the center of the case. They compiled letters from Salame’s friends and family attesting to his...

Sam Bankman-Fried shouldn’t expect to get Adderall or good vegetarian cooking where he’s headed, according to a federal prison system expert. He’ll be lucky if he’s able to avoid gang violence, as he’s most likely headed to a medium-security prison. On Thursday, a Manhattan judge sentenced the disgraced FTX founder to 25 years in federal prison—a length of time that has key implications for what prison he will now be sent to.  According to Christopher Zoukis, a federal prison consultant, precede...

On Thursday morning, a Manhattan federal judge handed Sam Bankman-Fried a 25 year prison sentence for his criminal involvement in fraud and conspiracy at FTX.  But how many years is the disgraced crypto founder likely to actually serve in a federal prison?  The answer is fairly easy to determine, given the rigid codes and calculations used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to evaluate prisoners, incentivize them, and manage their sentences.  Because Bankman-Fried received a sentence longer than o...

Now that Sam Bankman-Fried is a convicted criminal likely destined for decades behind bars in a brutal federal prison, what fate will befall his former colleagues and co-defendants? Nishad Singh, FTX’s director of engineering, Gary Wang, the exchange’s chief technical officer, and Caroline Ellison, former CEO of FTX sister trading firm Alameda Research, all pleaded guilty last December to multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy and agreed to testify against their former boss. Over the last month...

The guilty verdict in the criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried—delivered by a jury shortly before 8 p.m. ET in New York—triggered a torrent of reactions across the still vibrant crypto community on Twitter. The overall mood was closer to smug schadenfreude than jubilant, but there were hot takes across the spectrum. "Should let the SBF trial be a clear warning for other operators in crypto," wrote crypto analyst and venture capitalist Adam Cochran. "If you play with people's funds, they’ll get yo...

A jury of nine women and three men found FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried guilty of seven fraud and conspiracy charges on Thursday in the former crypto mogul’s high-profile criminal case. Although the jury delivered its verdict today, it could be some time before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan determines Bankman-Fried’s sentence. He faces a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison. "We respect the jury’s decision. But we are very disappointed with the result," Bankman-Fried's defense attorney Mark...

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan shielded the jury on Monday from an excerpt of “Going Infinite,” a new Michael Lewis book about FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Kaplan sided with an objection from the prosecution calling a conversation included in Lewis’ “letter to the jury” prejudicial hearsay. “There is a conversation described in Michael Lewis' book that is sourced to the defendant,”  U.S. Assistant Attorney Danielle Sassoon explained. “We consider [it] a false exculpatory and inadmissible hea...

The trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX and former crypto billionaire, has begun. Federal prosecutors accuse him of masterminding one of the most significant financial frauds in U.S. history. Bankman-Fried, once celebrated as a crypto billionaire, is alleged to have committed wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering while CEO of FTX. The case has been described by Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, as "one of the biggest financial...

Sam Bankman-Fried’s memory faltered on Monday under the scope of questions posed by US Assistant Attorney Danielle Sassoon—as the government challenged his credibility on the witness stand. “I’m not sure. I don’t recall. I’m not sure exactly what you’re referring to,” Bankman-Fried said, after Sassoon inquired about Alameda Research, a crypto trading firm Bankman-Fried co-founded, and whether he claimed—at any point—his bankrupt trading firm was subject to the same rules as other customers of FT...

During his testimony on Friday, Sam Bankman-Fried told the court that he intended to sell FTX to cryptocurrency exchange Binance when the firm was in its infancy.  As Bankman-Fried worked with FTX co-founder Gary Wang in 2019 to construct the now-bankrupt exchange in Hong Kong, he said he already knew he wanted it to specialize in margin trading and offer customers the ability to make outsized bets. At the time, according to his court testimony today, Bankman-Fried believed that FTX could establ...

Sam Bankman-Fried took the witness stand during his criminal trial on Thursday. But as the former crypto mogul spoke, the jury was nowhere to be found. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan—who presides over Bankman-Fried’s case—sent the group home around 2:00 pm. To assess whether certain topics should be precluded from Bankman-Fried’s testimony tomorrow, Judge Kaplan called for a special hearing. “We’re in the home stretch,” Kaplan said to the jurors as they were let go, assuring them that the week...

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will testify during his criminal trial, hoping to convince a jury that he is not guilty of seven fraud and conspiracy charges, his defense lawyers said during a teleconference on Wednesday. The revelation comes as federal prosecutors are expected to wind their case down. They’ve signaled their final witness will be called to the stand on Thursday. After that, Bankman-Fried’s defense attorneys will have the opportunity to present their telling of FTX’s collapse. Bank...

A defendant facing criminal charges has the right to testify during their trial, but many don’t. Now, several weeks into Sam Bankman-Fried’s case, the FTX founder still hasn’t decided whether he’ll take the stand. Bankman-Fried has remained silent so far, as he defends himself against seven fraud and conspiracy charges in federal court. Meanwhile, the jury has heard at length from FTX insiders, who’ve detailed Bankman-Fried’s state of mind throughout the arc of his exchange. “It almost feels nec...

FTX engaged BlackRock and Google as potential investors while Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange circled the drain last November, according to evidence submitted in the one-time wunderkind’s criminal trial on Thursday. Federal prosecutors offered a spreadsheet maintained by the now-defunct exchange connected to its fundraisers as FTX’s former general counsel, Can Sun, testified. The document includes info about various fundraising rounds—including one that Sun said “never closed.” According to...

\FTX former general counsel, Can Sun, testified on Thursday that Sam Bankman-Fried asked him to craft “legal justifications” to explain why billions of dollars of customer funds were missing, as the exchange struggled to process customer withdrawals last November. As FTX melted down, Bankman-Fried thought the exchange could raise money from investment fund Apollo to stay afloat and satisfy customers rushing for the exit. The catch: Apollo wanted to know how a $7 billion shortfall could exist at...

Sam Bankman-Fried's controversial Twitter direct messages were examined today in court, with everything from NBA star Shaquille O'Neal to the crypto mogul's apparently lax approach to regulation getting a mention. "Fuck regulators," one message read out in court said. "They make everything worse." Another series of Twitter DMs showed the disgraced crypto boss telling a reporter from Vox media outlet that he'd said "dumb shit." In another thread, Bankman-Fried was quizzed on when he previously s...

When crypto peaked in November of 2021, FTX’s customers thought they owned around $20 billion in digital assets. But according to an expert witness in Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial on Wednesday, the exchange’s digital wallets had closer to a quarter of that. Notre Dame Alumni Professor of Accountancy Peter Easton, who specializes in financial statement analysis, found that FTX’s digital wallets contained close to $5 billion in crypto when the industry boomed and Bitcoin’s price touched $69,...

FTX insiders Gary Wang, Caroline Ellison, and Nishad Singh concluded their respective testimonies on Tuesday, as FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial progressed past a key wave of witnesses in New York. The contours of the government's case, across key facts and charges, have been molded mostly by the three. Their testimony is foundational to prosecutors’ account of Bankman-Fried’s wrongdoings, to which the former crypto mogul has pleaded not guilty. The defense hasn’t decided yet on w...

Attorneys for Sam Bankman-Fried submitted a letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan on Sunday requesting that the FTX founder be allowed access to his prescribed medication during his ongoing fraud trial, saying he is unable to focus without it. The filing by the defense said that Bankman-Fried has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and was prescribed the medication Adderall to be taken throughout the day. However, since the beginning of his trial two weeks ago, he has only been permitted to t...