Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, said: “We respect the jury’s decision. But we are very disappointed with the result. Mr Bankman-Fried maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him.”
After Judge Kaplan left the courtroom, Mr Cohen put his arm around Bankman-Fried as they spoke at the defence table.
As Bankman-Fried was led out of the courtroom by members of the US Marshals service, he turned around, looked at his parents in the courtroom audience and nodded.
Bankman-Fried admits ‘mistakes’
Prosecutors accused the tycoon of funnelling billions of dollars in customer deposits to his crypto hedge fund, called Alameda Research, despite proclaiming on social media and in television adverts that FTX prioritised the safety of customer funds.
Alameda used the money to pay its lenders and to make loans to Bankman-Fried and other executives, which were spent on speculative venture investments and more than $100m in political donations in hopes of influencing rules over cryptocurrency.
Bankman-Fried’s defence lawyers attempted to portray him as a naive victim who simply overlooked risk management amid the rapid expansion of his cryptocurrency startup.
During the criminal trial they described the FTX co-founder as a “math nerd who didn’t drink or party”.
However, Bankman-Fried admitted during his three-day testimony that he made a “number of small mistakes and a number of larger mistakes”, such as failing to establish a risk-management team.