The collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX erased around $1 billion in customer funds and is often compared to high-profile frauds such as Enron and Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. Last week a jury found former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s guilty on all counts, which carry a potential prison sentence of over 100 years. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan will determine what time will be served in the coming weeks. After deliberating for just a few hours, jurors concluded he knowingly defrauded investors.
Bankman-Fried's parents, Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, reacted emotionally following the verdict, with courtroom sketch showing their hands over their faces. The duo are law professors at Stanford University. In September, FTX sued the duo alleging they, in advisory roles at the exchange, "fraudulently transferred and misappropriated" millions of dollars. Some of the funds were directed to a political action committee that supported Democratic causes.