Sam Bankman-Fried
Founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and trading firm Alameda Research. Convicted in November 2023 on seven fraud and conspiracy counts and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Also known as: SBF, Samuel Bankman-Fried
Bio
Sam Bankman-Fried founded the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the trading firm Alameda Research. According to the U.S. DOJ, he misappropriated billions of dollars of FTX customer deposits to repay Alameda's loans and for investments, real estate, and political donations. [1][2]
Legal outcome
A jury convicted him on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in November 2023, and in March 2024 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $11 billion. [1][2]
Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.
Sources (2)
- Samuel Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years — U.S. DOJ
- Sam Bankman-Fried Guilty on All 7 Counts — CoinDesk
See also
Luke BelmarIndividualsCryptocurrency influencer Luke Belmar (@lukebelmar on X) became the subject of controversy following allegations related to the promotion of a memecoin. Critics on social media alleged that Belmar used a series of posts referencing a forthcoming cryptocurrency project and a large-scale airdrop to generate interest in a token without explicitly identifying a specific contract address. Belmar published multiple posts discussing an upcoming memecoin, describing plans for what he characterized as a major airdrop and making comparisons to other cryptocurrency projects. Because no contract address was publicly provided, several tokens emerged claiming association with his statements. Critics alleged that this ambiguity enabled speculation around multiple tokens while avoiding a direct endorsement of any particular asset.
Evolved Apes (NFT)ProjectsAn NFT collection launched on OpenSea in September 2021 that promised a fighting game. About a week later its anonymous developer 'Evil Ape' vanished with 798 ETH (~$2.7M). In June 2024 U.S. prosecutors charged three U.K. nationals over the scheme.
This page was last updated on Jun 15, 2026. View revision history.