Sam Bankman-Fried

Sam Bankman-Fried (born March 5, 1992) commonly known as SBF, is an American entrepreneur who was convicted of fraud and related crimes in November 2023. Bankman-Fried founded the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and was celebrated as a 'poster boy' for crypto, with FTX having a global reach with more than 130 international affiliates. At the peak of his net worth, he was ranked the 41st-richest American in the Forbes 400.

In November 2022, as evidence of potential fraud began to surface, depositors quickly withdrew their assets from FTX, forcing the company into bankruptcy. On December 12, 2022, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas and extradited to the United States, where he was indicted on seven criminal charges, including wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance law violations.

In the case of United States v. Bankman-Fried, he was convicted of all seven counts of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. On March 28, 2024, he was sentenced to 25 years' incarceration (at Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island), three years' supervised release, and ordered to forfeit $11 billion. The trial was one of the most notorious cases of white-collar crime in the United States; financier Anthony Scaramucci termed Bankman-Fried 'the Bernie Madoff of crypto'.