Sam Bankman-Fried, once the most respected face of crypto currency, goes on trial Tuesday in federal court facing seven counts of fraud that could see him spend decades in prison.
The curly haired graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in just a few years turned his FTX platform into the world's second biggest crypto exchange, propelling him to become the tech world's latest out-of-the-blue billionaire.
The 31-year-old's empire began to crumble last November when revelations alleged that client money in the FTX platform was being funneled to prop up Alameda Research, the company's crypto-focused investment arm. Danielle Sassoon, an attorney for the prosecution, told a hearing that the number of victims of Sam Bankman-Fried's alleged actions could be "in excess of a million."Charged with fraud and criminal conspiracy, SBF, as Bankman-Fried is known, was extradited at the end of December from the Bahamas, where FTX was headquartered, and released on a $250 million bail upon his arrival in New York.
According to prosecutors, while holed up at his parent's home, Bankman-Fried passed on documents to the New York Times in an attempt to influence the testimony of Caroline Ellison, his ex-girlfriend and a former Alameda executive.