A Background of Sam Bankman-Fried's Criminal Conduct

BACKGROUND

On November 2, 2023, following a month-long trial, the defendant was convicted of seven counts: wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud on FTX’s customers; wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud on Alameda Research’s lenders; conspiracy to commit securities fraud on FTX’s investors; conspiracy to commit commodities fraud on FTX’s customers; and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Although the Court is familiar with the facts underlying those convictions, having presided over the trial, the defendant’s criminal conduct, which led to FTX’s collapse and resulting bankruptcy, is described below.

These facts make the following clear about the defendant’s criminal conduct: (i) the criminality permeated many aspects of the defendant’s business and life; (ii) the defendant was the leader of the schemes, was intimately involved in executing them, and gave specific directions to his co-conspirators to carry them out; (iii) only the defendant was involved in all aspects of the schemes, and even his co-conspirators were excluded from parts of them; (iv) while some of the defendant’s co-conspirators were not involved at the beginning or end of the fraud, the defendant’s involvement was pervasive throughout; (v) the defendant took or directed others to take many brazen acts that were unambiguously criminal; (vi) the defendant committed additional crimes, such as lying to banks, as part of his larger fraud at FTX; (vii) the defendant was repeatedly confronted by others about the risks posed by continuing down the criminal path he had set them on, and repeatedly he chose to continue the fraud; (viii) the crimes resulted in extraordinary financial loss to tens of thousands of victims; and (ix) the defendant has failed to take genuine responsibility for his role in the collapse of FTX and the loss of customer funds.