Jury in FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud trial reaches verdict
By Luc Cohen and Jody Godoy
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The jury in Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud trial reached a verdict on Thursday, a court official said, following a monthlong trial in which prosecutors accused the FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder of stealing billions of dollars of customer funds.
The verdict was expected to be read shortly in Manhattan federal court. The 12 jurors must agree unanimously in order to reach a verdict of guilty or not guilty on the various charges.
Bankman-Fried is poised to learn his fate nearly a year after FTX declared bankruptcy as its customers raced to withdraw their funds in a collapse that shocked cryptocurrency markets and obliterated the 31-year-old's fortune, once estimated by Forbes at $26 billion.
Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy.
Prosecutors have argued that Bankman-Fried stole $8 billion in one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history. They contended that Bankman-Fried looted customer funds to prop up his crypto-focused Alameda Research hedge fund, make speculative venture investments and donate more than $100 million to U.S. political campaigns in a bid to promote cryptocurrency legislation Bankman-Fried viewed as favorable to his business.
The prosecution said he directed other executives to tweak FTX's computer code to allow Alameda to siphon funds, and that the hedge fund then lent the money to Bankman-Fried and other executives to spend as they wish. Bankman-Fried also directed others to falsify financial statements, prosecutors said.
«He lied to gain customers' trust, to get their money, and then he decided the rules didn't apply to him and his business,» prosecutor Danielle Sassoon told jurors earlier on
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