Sam Bankman-Fried

Sam Bankman-Fried was one of the richest people in crypto, thanks to his FTX exchange and Alameda Research trading firm, before his empire came crashing down in November 2022. After users began withdrawing their investments from FTX at a rapid pace, Bankman-Fried filed for bankruptcy for FTX, FTX's U.S. operations and Alameda Research.

On March 28, 2024, Samuel Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, 32, of Stanford, California, was sentenced to 25 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $11 billion in forfeiture for his orchestration of multiple fraudulent schemes. Bankman-Fried, who was the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research, misappropriated billions of dollars of customer funds deposited with FTX, defrauded investors in FTX of more than $1.7 billion, and defrauded lenders to Alameda of more than $1.3 billion. Bankman-Fried was previously found guilty on two counts of wire fraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, following a one-month trial.