First photo of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in jail after being found guilty of money laundering and fraud
Topics: Crime, Cryptocurrency, News, US News
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: X/@TiffanyFong_
Topics: Crime, Cryptocurrency, News, US News
The first photo of the FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in prison has been released after he was found guilty of money laundering and fraud last year.
The once prominent figure's fall from grace was sealed in November 2023, after a jury quickly returned their verdict on the first day of deliberations.
Bankman-Fried was ultimately charged with two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy.
In a month-long trial, the former FTX boss was accused of stealing billions of dollars from his own cryptocurrency exchange.
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The company was forced to shut down withdrawals in November 2022, with more than $8 billion in customer funds missing.
Prosecutors claimed during an intense trial that Bankman-Fried orchestrated a scheme to siphon FTX customer money into political contributions, real estate purchases and charitable donations.
They also believed he was lying to his venture capital backers and the companies who lent money to FTX.
With all that evidence, the founder was ultimately sent down.
Now, the first photo of Bankman-Fried in jail has been released as he awaits to be sentenced on 28 March.
In the photo obtained by crypto journalist Tiffany Fong, Sam Bankman-Fried can be seen hanging out with former gang members.
Taken on 17 December, in the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center, a sheepish Bankman-Fried is seen standing in a line with his other inmates.
It's certainly evident he's been in prison, as he sports a messy hairstyle and a rather scruffy beard.
G Lock, a former gang member who can be seen standing next to Bankman-Fried in the photo, told Fong: "My son Sam Bankman is clean shaven… now he’s scruffier than a m*********er."
He went on to claim that Bankman-Fried is 'skinny like a toothpick' and that he’s not showering.
It comes after his ex-girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, was a star witness for the prosecution's case.
When she took to the stand last year, Ellison admitted that she and Bankman-Fried committed crimes of fraud, conspiracy and money-laundering together.
When asked to describe Bankman-Fried's attitude to risk, Ellison said he would call himself 'risk neutral' and 'totally comfortable taking a risk'.
She said: "He talked about being willing to do large coin flips: if it comes up tails he loses $10 million and it comes up heads he makes slightly more than $10 million.
"He said he would be happy to flip a coin if it came up tails and the world was destroyed, as long as if it came up heads the world was more than twice as good.”