Former crypto star Sam Bankman-Fried faces US trial

NEW YORK, United States — 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.

Bankman-Fried's meteoric rise was only matched by his ignominious downfall, which saw him escorted last year by police from his luxury apartment in the Bahamas and extradited to face charges in the United States.

At the height of his celebrity, Bankman-Fried was thought to be worth $26 billion, with FTX becoming a near household name through a frenzied marketing campaign and celebrity endorsements by supermodel Gisele Bundchen, NBA star Stephen Curry and others.

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.

The rumors quickly snowballed and investors pulled their money from FTX, sinking it swiftly into bankruptcy and disgracing Bankman-Fried as a financial pariah on par with Bernie Madoff or Elizabeth Holmes.

Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams has accused him of diverting funds from FTX clients, but also wire fraud, securities and commodities fraud, and money laundering.

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."

Pointing fingers

Charged with fraud and criminal conspiracy, SBF, as