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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted by a New York jury in a landmark criminal verdict that is likely to condemn the former crypto tycoon to years in prison and bolster US authorities’ attempts to bring an unruly financial sector to heel.
The unanimous decision in the highest-profile cryptocurrency-related trial to date was delivered on Thursday evening, following several hours of deliberation by the jury’s nine women and three men over charges including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The verdict comes almost exactly a year after FTX fell into bankruptcy after being unable to honour withdrawal requests from thousands of customers spooked by a market downturn and damaging revelations about the exchange’s opaque financial structures.
Bankman-Fried, known for his unruly hair and cargo shorts, courted celebrities, was once welcomed at the White House and on Capitol Hill and secured billions of dollars in investment during his brief tenure as the public face of the nascent cryptocurrency industry.
The 31-year-old was accused by prosecutors last December of orchestrating “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history” on the FTX exchange’s customers and investors, as well as lenders to his affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research.
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