Finally, the jurors concluded that Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) misused his power & he was found guilty in 7 out of 7 counts.
Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is a co-founder & former CEO of the FTX crypto exchange. In Nov 2022, SBF stepped out from the role of FTX CEO and FTX filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 code along with 120+ subsidiaries. Following the FTX bankruptcy, many people filed class action lawsuits against SBF. Allegedly FTX used customers’ funds for personal benefits without their consent.
On 2 Nov 2023, a panel of jurors concluded that SBF was the main culprit behind the FTX empire’s downfall. In short, SBF found guilty on all seven counts.
Now the SBF’s sentencing hearing is on 28 March 2024 and the court may rule to sentence SBF behind bars for up to 115 years.
Reportedly SBF representative lawyers planned to appeal the verdict.
In the initial phase, before court trials, there were more than a dozen charges against SBF but later investigation found that only 7 charges were applicable. In short, SBF already succeeded in getting out of 5 charges.
In the 15 court trials, former FTX executives played a vital role in presenting evidence against SBF. These witnesses were FTX co-founder Gary Wang, FTX former engineer Nishad Singh, and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison.
FTX reboot plan
So far the FTX bankruptcy team collected nearly $7 billion worth of funds. The majority of the funds came from those parties who received funds from the FTX exchange on behalf of SBF.
Just a few weeks ago, media reports confirmed that the FTX bankruptcy team was negotiating a deal with 3 bidders to restart the exchange.
In Q1 of this year, some reports claimed that the FTX team planned to rebrand the exchange and give stakes ownership to the former FTX customers as compensation.
Read also: SEC takes action against PayPal for its Ethereum-powered stablecoin
