The trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX founder and former crypto billionaire, is ready to start Tuesday with jury choice after federal prosecutors accused him of orchestrating one of many largest monetary frauds in U.S. historical past.
Jury choice is predicted to happen Tuesday, and the trial might final so long as six weeks.
Bankman-Fried faces seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and cash laundering centered on his alleged use of buyer deposits on the crypto buying and selling platform FTX to cowl losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Analysis, and to purchase lavish actual property, amongst different private bills.
He has pleaded not responsible to all counts. If convicted, he might face a sentence of as much as 110 years in jail.
Bankman-Fried stepped down from his position at FTX in November 2022 amid a speedy collapse that ended with the corporate declaring chapter. Prosecutors charged Bankman-Fried the next month with an array of alleged crimes targeted on a scheme to defraud buyers.
In an interview with ABC Information’ George Stephanopoulos that November, Bankman-Fried denied figuring out “there was any improper use of buyer funds.”
“I actually deeply want that I had taken like much more duty for understanding what the small print have been of what was happening there,” Bankman-Fried informed Stephanopoulos on the time. “Lots of people acquired damage, and that is on me.”
Bankman-Fried is being held within the Metropolitan Detention Middle in Brooklyn, a federal jail, the place he’ll stay all through the proceedings.
After months spent underneath home arrest at his dad and mom’ house in Palo Alto, California, Bankman-Fried was despatched to jail in August after a federal decide revoked his $250 million bail.
A federal decide in New York on Thursday denied Bankman-Fried non permanent launch from custody throughout his trial, deciding he’s too nice a flight threat to let free.
Prosecutors had balked at Bankman-Fried’s sharing with The New York Instances excerpts from the non-public paperwork of Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend, who led his Alameda Analysis hedge fund and who has pleaded responsible and agreed to cooperate.
The decide in the end lent credence to concern over Bankman-Fried’s alleged try and improperly affect Ellison, who’s probably set to testify at his trial.
Earlier than his sudden downfall, Bankman-Fried had ascended to the highest of the cryptocurrency sector, garnering goodwill as a philanthropist and main proponent of trade regulation. The duvet of Fortune Journal in August 2022 requested readers whether or not Bankman-Fried, recognized by some as “SBF,” was “the subsequent Warren Buffett.”
As a pandemic-era crypto increase pale within the fall of final yr, issues of economic instability at FTX — a prime platform the place customers purchase and promote crypto — triggered a wave of buyer withdrawals totaling billions of {dollars}.
Inside days, FTX filed for Chapter 11 chapter protections because it assessed the worth of its remaining property, an organization announcement mentioned.
Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO in November 2022 and was changed with John J. Ray III, who steered disgraced power firm Enron via chapter proceedings within the 2000s.
In the meantime, Bankman-Fried’s internet price plummeted from $16 billion to $0 in lower than per week, in keeping with an estimate from Bloomberg.
Days after FTX declared chapter, the corporate’s collapse turned the topic of an investigation by federal prosecutors in New York, sources accustomed to the matter had informed ABC Information.
Roughly a month later, in December 2022, Bankman-Fried was arrested within the Bahamas after federal prosecutors in New York filed prison expenses, in keeping with the Royal Bahamas Police Power.
