Sam Bankman-Fried prosecutor says Gary Wang's cooperation sped up case
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried shortly after the cryptocurrency exchange's collapse in part because they secured the cooperation of its chief software engineer, one of the prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Speaking five days after Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thane Rehn said former FTX Chief Technology Officer Gary Wang's assistance was key to helping investigators understand how Bankman-Fried stole $8 billion in customer funds.
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Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteIndian School of BusinessISB Professional Certificate in Product ManagementVisitMITMIT Technology Leadership and InnovationVisitIIM LucknowIIML Executive Programme in FinTech, Banking & Applied Risk ManagementVisit «Without that, would we have found it? Probably,» Rehn said at a discussion hosted by law firm Wilson Sonsini. «But it would have taken a software expert weeks or even months.»
Jurors in Manhattan found Bankman-Fried, 32, guilty last November on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy, in what prosecutors termed one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history.
Bankman-Fried is expected to appeal his conviction, after testifying that he made mistakes in managing risk but never intended to steal funds. He had been arrested in December 2022, just one month after FTX's collapse and bankruptcy.
Rehn's comments highlighted the importance of the government's three main cooperating witnesses — Wang, former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh, and Caroline
