Crypto scammer’s parents weep in court as he’s found guilty of £8,200,000,000 fraud

Cryptocurrency founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted yesterday of what has been called ‘one of the biggest financial frauds in US history’.

The FTX founder was found guilty of seven charges against him accusing him of stealing around $10 billion (£8.2 billion) from customers and investors.

A jury quickly reached a decision after starting deliberations yesterday afternoon.

His parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried who are Stanford law professors, hugged once the verdict was read out and were seen holding their heads and fighting tears.

Bankman-Fried now faces up to 115 years in prison.

The 31-year-old has consistently denied the charges and his lawyer, Mark Cohen, insisted they will continue to ‘vigorously fight the charges’ until his sentencing on March 28, 2024.

Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said: ‘A multi-billion-dollar scheme designed to make him the king of crypto.

‘Here’s the thing: the cryptocurrency industry might be new; the players like Sam Bankman-Fried might be new – but this kind of fraud, this kind of corruption, is as old as time, and we have no patience for it.

‘When I became US attorney, I promised we would be relentless in rooting corruption in our financial markets.

‘This is what relentless looks like. This case moved at lighting speed. That was not a coincidence, that was a choice.

‘This is also a message, a warning in this case, to every single fraudster out there who thinks that they’re untouchable or that their crimes are too complex for us to catch.

‘Or that they’re too powerful for us to prosecute, or that they could try to talk their way out of it when they get caught.

‘Those folks should think again and cut it out – and if they don’t I promise we’ll have enough handcuffs for all of them.’

The verdict came after a month-long trial, which saw three of his former fellow top executives also plead guilty to fraud charges and testify against him.

Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried spent the money on investments, real estate, promotions for his cryptocurrency exchange and political contributions.

When crypto prices tumbled at the end of last year, customers tried to withdraw their money and it created the equivalent of a run on a bank, and FTX shut down. Media reports raised questions about how much of the $32 billion valuation was based on FTT – FTX’s own crypto token.