Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on Oct. 2 in Manhattan federal court on all counts of defrauding his customers, New York Times reported.
The founder of now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX was found guilty on seven counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money.
He faces decades in prison.
NYT reported that the counts carry a maximum sentence of 110 years.
Bankman-Fried is expected to appeal.
His sentencing hearing has been set for Mar. 28, 2024.
The verdict was reached after just four hours of jury deliberation, Guardian reported.
Court proceedings lasted barely a month.
The 31-year-old maintained his innocence until the end.
"We respect the jury’s decision. But we are very disappointed with the result," Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, said in a statement that was read out, as reported by Guardian.
Just a year ago, Bankman-Fried was worth more than US$20 billion and hailed as the rare good guy in the cyrpto space.
FTX was valued at US$32 billion at its peak.
Parents' reactions
Stanford Law School professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, the accused's parents, sat in the courtroom’s second row, holding each other’s hands, as per Guardian.
After the verdict was read, the accused's father sat with his head in his hands.
Bankman-Fried's mother did likewise, as per NYT.
Bankman-Fried was led out of the courtroom by members of the US Marshals service.
Before he left, he turned around, looked at his parents and nodded.
His mother looked at him and crossed her arms across her chest.
Bankman-Fried is also set to go on trial on a second set of charges brought by prosecutors earlier in 2023, including for alleged foreign bribery and bank fraud conspiracies.
What happened during trial
The formerly tousle-haired mogul appeared for this trial with a new haircut.
The move was described as "a significant gesture for a man whose chaotic mane became part of his signature look as a tech innovator", as per Guardian.
During the trial, the prosecution questioned him on his appearance and public persona, asking him if he used them to attract investors and customers.
Bankman-Fried was accused of stealing some US$10 billion (S$13.6 billion) from FTX customers.
Prosecutors said his fraud extended from 2019 to November 2022, when FTX collapsed due to a liquidity crisis, caused by the lending of customer funds to Alameda Research, FTX’s sister hedge fund.
Customers were not informed about the arrangement.
The business collapsed over a matter of days in November 2023.
When FTX went bankrupt last November, Alameda owed it US$8 billion, BBC reported.
Bankman-Fried had siphoned “stolen funds” to make himself rich, prosecutors said, and cover Alameda’s high-risk investments.
The money went into funding his luxurious lifestyle unrelated to FTX operations, such as US$100 million in political contributions and A-list celebrity endorsements, according to the indictment.
This also included paying for personal expenses, such as US$200 million in Bahamas property and repaying loans given to Alameda.
Bankman-Fried admitted to “large mistakes” in his management during his testimony, such as never putting a risk management team in place.
But when he replied “I don’t recall” to prosecutors, he was confronted with on-the-record statements he had made during his post-collapse media blitz.
Guardian reported that when he was asked if he had ever sent “F*ck regulators” as a message to a journalist, he admitted: “I said that once.”
Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s on-again, off-again girlfriend and the CEO of Alameda, served as the star prosecution witness.
Ellison had pleaded guilty in December 2022 to her involvement in FTX and Alameda’s collapse.
She said his unkempt appearance was a carefully curated act, and that he “directed me to commit these crimes”, as per Guardian.
Gary Wang, Bankman-Fried’s longtime friend and roommate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a FTX co-founder, and Nishad Singh, an executive at the exchange, also testified for the government, NYT reported.
Those who testified against Bankman-Fried agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in return for leniency, NYT reported.
They will be sentenced in late 2024.
Bankman-Fried’s attorneys tried to cast him as a “math nerd” over the course of trial.
They also argued that he had operated his businesses in good faith and never intended to break the law.
Top photo via New York Times Events YouTube