Enlarge / Sam Bankman-Fried leaves court in New York on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of defrauding customers by a federal jury today. He was convicted on all seven counts, Reuters and other news outlets reported . The 12-member jury returned the verdict after several hours of deliberation.

The seven charges are wire fraud on customers of FTX, conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers of FTX, wire fraud on lenders to Alameda Research, conspiracy to commit wire fraud on lenders to Alameda Research, conspiracy to commit securities fraud on investors in FTX, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud on customers of FTX in connection with purchases and sales of cryptocurrency and swaps, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The five charges related to wire fraud and money laundering carry maximum sentences of 20 years each, while the two securities and commodities fraud charges have maximum sentences of five years each. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan will determine the actual sentence.

Enlarge / Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried arrives for a bail revocation hearing at US District Court on August 11, 2023, in New York City. (credit: Getty Images | Michael Santiago)

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's monthlong criminal trial neared its end today as the prosecution and defense presented closing arguments.

Bankman-Fried is accused of defrauding customers and investors of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its affiliate Alameda Research. "This was a pyramid of deceit built by the defendant on a foundation of lies and false promises, all to get money," US prosecutor Nicolas Roos told the jury today, according to Reuters . "Eventually it collapsed, leaving thousands of victims in its wake."

Roos described how FTX customers lost their investments when the exchange collapsed, the Associated Press wrote . "Who was responsible?" Roos said, pointing at the defendant. "This man, Samuel Bankman-Fried. What happened? He spent his customers' money and he lied to them about it."

Enlarge / Sam Bankman-Fried leaves federal court in New York on Thursday, February 16, 2023. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

Facing cross-examination at his criminal fraud trial yesterday, Sam Bankman-Fried repeatedly testified that he doesn't remember details about what he did and said while running cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Bankman-Fried responded "I'm not sure" or "I can't recall" to many questions from US prosecutor Danielle Sassoon, according to news reports from the trial.

Sassoon "grilled Mr. Bankman-Fried about the inconsistencies between his public statements and how he ran his crypto empire before it collapsed spectacularly in November," a New York Times article said. Bankman-Fried "insisted that he couldn't remember much of what he had said publicly" and "added that he wasn't significantly involved in the hedge fund he founded, Alameda Research."

The New York Post wrote that Bankman-Fried answered with some variation of "I can't recall" over 100 times on Monday. But Sassoon "presented jurors with a mountain of tweets, emails, and podcast clips revealing that the MIT grad did in fact say dozens of things he claimed not to have recalled," the article said.

Enlarge (credit: ANGELA WEISS / Contributor | AFP )

On Friday, Sam Bankman-Fried began his first day testifying before a jury with a loss. The FTX co-founder had intended to explain exactly how much he relied on lawyers to steer his decision-making amid the cryptocurrency exchange's rise and collapse, but US District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that particular part of his proposed testimony could not be heard by the jury, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Bankman-Fried had testified on Thursday that his in-house legal team oversaw paperwork for "hundreds of millions of dollars in personal loans to himself and other founders of the platform," CNBC reported . He told the court that having his legal team's blessing was something that he "took comfort in."

“That evidence would in my judgment be confusing and prejudicial,” Kaplan said, dealing what many outlets considered a serious blow to Bankman-Fried's defense.

Enlarge / FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrives at US District Court on March 30, 2023, in New York City after being hit with a criminal charge for allegedly authorizing a bribe of at least $40 million to one or more Chinese government officials. (credit: Getty Images | Michael Santiago )

Sam Bankman-Fried took the stand in his criminal trial today in an attempt to avoid decades in prison for alleged fraud at cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its affiliate Alameda Research.

Providing testimony has been called a risky move for Bankman-Fried by many legal observers. After answering questions posted by his own lawyers, Bankman-Fried will have to face cross-examination from federal prosecutors. But after three weeks in which US government attorneys laid out their case, including testimony from former FTX and Alameda executives, Bankman-Fried's legal team announced yesterday that he would take the stand.

Today's testimony was unusual because US District Judge Lewis Kaplan sent the jury home for the day to conduct a hearing on whether certain parts of his testimony are admissible. "That means Bankman-Fried will give some of his testimony to the judge without the jury present. The judge will then decide whether Bankman-Fried is allowed to say the same testimony in front of a jury," The Wall Street Journal wrote in its live coverage . The trial is not being streamed via audio or video.

Enlarge / Sam Bankman-Fried’s former flatmates (from top) Caroline Ellison, NIshad Singh and Gary Wang have given evidence against him (credit: FT montage/Bloomberg/AP)

Early last summer, Adam Yedidia took Sam Bankman-Fried to one side after a game of paddle tennis. In the shadow of a hut in the grounds of the Bahamian penthouse they and others shared, he asked the crypto tycoon: “Are we OK?”

Yedidia told a New York court this month that he was worried FTX, the crypto exchange that Bankman-Fried had co-founded and at that time led, was in financial trouble. He recounted his old friend’s reply: “We were bulletproof last year, but we’re not bulletproof this year.”

FTX collapsed a few months later, sending shockwaves through the cryptocurrency industry. US prosecutors hope this chat, which they have taken to calling the “bulletproof conversation,” will help to show Bankman-Fried knew about, and concealed, an $8 billion cash shortfall for months at least before it was exposed.

Enlarge / Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried arrives for a bail hearing at US District Court on August 11, 2023, in New York City. (credit: Getty Images | Michael Santiago )

Over three days of testimony in Sam Bankman-Fried's criminal trial, Caroline Ellison provided revealing glimpses from the years in which she was SBF's on-and-off girlfriend and one of his top executives.

Ellison's testimony described Bankman-Fried's belief that he could become US president, and his belief that his hair "was an important part of FTX's narrative and image." She offered details on a failed attempt to use prostitutes' identities to unlock funds frozen by the Chinese government, and on Bankman-Fried's habit of describing hypothetical coin flips in which everything—even the fate of the whole world—would be put at risk.

She also described how Bankman-Fried had a "utilitarian" philosophy in which rules like "don't lie" and "don't steal" did not fit into his moral framework.

Enlarge / Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, arrives at court in New York on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

Caroline Ellison, the former Alameda Research CEO who dated Sam Bankman-Fried, testified against her former partner today in his criminal trial. "In the trial's second week, Ellison said she committed fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering along with Bankman-Fried and others," the Associated Press reported .

"He was originally the CEO of Alameda and the owner of Alameda and he directed me to commit these crimes," Ellison said today, according to a Bloomberg article . She added that "Alameda took several billion dollars from FTX customers and used it for its own investments" and to pay off lenders.

Ellison's testimony began shortly before the court took a break for a lunch. The trial is in US District Court for the Southern District of New York, located in Manhattan.