Wow, that was quick. After only four hours of deliberation, a federal jury in Manhattan returned a guilty verdict on all sever criminal fraud counts against Crypto King and FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried; SBF, as he is widely known.

During the month-long trial, the Crypto Circus came streaming into Gotham. The trial featured all manner of self-proclaimed crypto experts that waited prior to daybreak to be allowed access to the trial. 

The Crypto King was largely done in by three of his former colleagues and friends, all co-defendants in his case who turned state's evidence against Bankman-Fried. The co-defendants include FTX co-founder and former-Google employee Gary Wang, Caroline Ellison, CEO of FTX "sister" company Alameda Research, and Nishad Singh.

All three co-defendants pled guilty last December but did not receive plea deals. Instead, they traded their cooperative testimony for consideration via what is colloquially known as a 5k motion from the Manhattan United States Attorney's office. 

This plea tactic calls for the prosecutor to file a motion under section 5k1.1 of the United States Sentencing Guidelines. Usually, the motion calls for a sentence that is under the guideline range; it is unclear whether this was done in the SBF case.

The maneuver calls for the US Attorney to write a detailed letter to the sentencing judge outlining the criminal conduct of each co-defendant as well as explaining how the co-defendants aided the government's case. The letter, however, makes no sentencing recommendation to the judge. In most plea deals, the prosecuting attorney agrees to request a specific sentence. 

During his trial, SBF elected to testify on his own behalf; an always-risky proposition. He attempted to shift blame onto other players, including: FTX lawyers, and his 28-year-old co-defendant and on-again, off-again girlfriend, Caroline Ellison. 

Asserting that he was an inexperienced businessman who got in too deep over his head, he relied on the advice of his laywers. This is known as the "advice of counsel" defense. Against this backdrop, jurors were informed about SBF's extensive blog posts, writings, and detailed interviews on all things crypto. 

The United States Attorney alleged that SBF diverted FTX customers' funds to his personal use; they also alleged he diverted the funds from the Bahamas-based FTX to cover huge losses incurred by SBF's other company, Alameda Research, a crypto hedge-fund. Details in the case revealed that most of the assets of Alameda Research comprised of a specific type of digital token known as FTT; a token created by none other than FTX.

SBF and his three co-defendants are all scheduled to be sentenced before United States District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan in March 2024. For their part, Wang and Ellison both testified on cross-examination that they are hoping for a sentence of probation. 

Over the years, we here at Clarkston Legal occasionally have represented clients charged with financial crimes in federal court. One of the primary factors contained in the federal sentencing guidelines considered by the federal judge is the amount of money the scam involved; the higher the amount of money; the longer the sentence guidelines. In this case, it is billions of dollars. 

So it does not look good for these co-defendants realtive to receiving a sentence of mere probation. Some prison time is almost assured. The sentencing judge will weigh the co-defendant's cooperation and trial testimony aginst the fact that they helped misappropriate billions of dollars of other people's money.

For his part, Bankman-Fried, only 31 years old, is almost assured a sentence for a term of years that will constitute life in prison. A dastardly fate for the MIT gradiate whose parents are both law professors at Stanford Law School.

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