A jury has found Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, guilty of all seven criminal counts pressed against him.
What Happened: Following the verdict, Dogecoin DOGE/USD co-creator Billy Markus, popularly known as Shibetoshi Nakamoto, took to X and wrote, “pro-tip: ‘altruism’ is not very ‘effective’ when it’s about stealing from the poor (crypto degens) and giving their money to rich celebrities (Kevin O’Leary), bribing politicians, and giving your already rich parents a 20 million dollar mansion.”
Bankman-Fried, a 31-year old entrepreneur who grew up with two Stanford legal scholars as parents and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was found guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud against FTX customers and Alameda Research lenders. Additionally, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit commodities fraud against FTX investors, as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Despite pleading not guilty to all charges, Bankman-Fried was unable to convince the jury. Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, spoke at a briefing after the verdicts were read, stating, “Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history. The cryptocurrency industry might be new, and players like Sam Bankman-Fried might be new, but this kind of fraud and corruption is as old as time, and we have no patience for it.”
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Why It Matters: This is not the first time Markus has criticized Bankman-Fried. Following the collapse of FTX in November 2022, Markus heavily criticized Bankman-Fried, even after the latter admitted his wrongdoings on television and publicly apologized to customers and creditors on X. In a previous post, Markus referred to Bankman-Fried as “the most famous vegan.”
Price Action: At the time of writing, DOGE was trading at $0.67, down 3.76% in the last 24 hours, according to Benzinga Pro.
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