Sam Bankman-Fried Is Convicted of Fraud in FTX Collapse

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By James Fanelli and Corinne Ramey

(The Wall Street Journal) — FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted Thursday of stealing billions of dollars from customers of the doomed crypto exchange, in what prosecutors called one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history. 

A New York federal jury convicted him of all seven counts he faced. The verdict capped the stunning fall of the onetime crypto king, whose shaggy-haired, boy-genius persona helped catapult FTX into a powerhouse trading platform that sponsored sports teams and ran glitzy ads featuring football great Tom Brady, model Gisele Bündchen and comedian Larry David. 

The crypto exchange abruptly crashed a year ago, with customers losing billions of dollars. Bankman-Fried, 31 years old, was indicted in December 2022 and agreed to leave his home in the Bahamas to face an array of fraud charges. Near the end of the monthlong trial, Bankman-Fried took the risky move of testifying in his own defense.