 Sam Bankman Freed perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history, a multi-billion dollar scheme designed to make him the king of crypto. Over a hundred years in jail, that dissentence Sam Bankman Freed could face after being found guilty of one of the biggest financial frauds in history. The trial on SBF wrapped up last week, one year after his crypto empire crumbled to the ground. A New York jury determined he stole billions of dollars of customers funds from his crypto exchange FTX. In this video we break down the trial, its outcome and explain why it matters to you and the whole industry. Before we start, if you like our content don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe. I'm Giovanni and this is a Cointelegraph Report. FTX, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges collapsed in November 2022, going from a valuation of about 32 billion dollars to zero in just a few weeks. Here is a quick refresher on how that happened. FTX founder Sam Bankman Freed transferred large amounts of customer funds from the exchange to his own trading firm Alameda Research. SBF then used those funds to make risky bets on crypto, lobby politicians in Washington and fund his lavish lifestyle in the Bahamas. In early November 2022 it became clear that FTX and Alameda were insolvent after losing billions of dollars of customer funds in the crypto bear market. Bagamshi Kanegundla and Ivan Lutra, two victims of the FTX collapse told us about those dramatic moments. I was using FTX my go-to every day simply because of the user experience that the app had and all the other credibility around it also because I mean it was rather top two exchanges out there at the time and when it went down I just had just over a couple million dollars mostly in a mix of different altcoins and some bitcoin. I was supremely upset like I was like oh my god I can't believe this happened. I got hurt from it but I did it with money I was willing to lose. A five-week criminal trial against SBF and the last week the essence of the trial boiled down to this question. Was Sam a calculated villain or simply an experienced manager who made terrible mistakes? Yesho Yadav, a law professor specializing in cryptocurrency told us more about this crucial aspect. Traditionally you know conventionally legally it's very hard to show intent because you have to go into someone's mind to show that. Establishing his state of mind what he was thinking what his motives were what he was really hoping to achieve through FTX as a potential conduit for funds for Alameda. To prove Beckham and Fried's intentionality the prosecutor could count on the testimony of three key witnesses. Gary Wang the former chief technology officer of FTX, Nishad Singh the former head of engineering at FTX and Caroline Ellison the former CEO of Alameda and SBF's former girlfriend. All of them pleaded guilty to fraud charges and agreed to testify against SBF. Wang was the first to take this stand. He told the courtroom that SBF asked him to create a secret backdoor between FTX and Alameda research. That backdoor gave Alameda a credit line from FTX worth about 65 billion dollars. That meant Alameda could withdraw virtually unlimited customer funds from FTX without customers knowledge or consent. But the main star of the trial was Caroline Ellison. She shared important details on the dark side of SBF's personality which was key to proving his intent. The evidence that she brought out was very very personal in nature. She went through conversations that she had with Sam in deep detail. These are conversations that are very revelatory about what was happening at that time what Sam Beckman Fried was thinking. During her testimony Caroline confirmed that SBF was the mastermind behind the scheme which illegally funneled about 14 billion dollars of FTX funds to Alameda. But that's not all. The latest to testify was Nishad Singh, the former engineering director of FTX. He told the jury how SBF personally instructed him to spend FTX customer funds. Expenditures included sponsorship deals, investments in startups and real estate, including a 35 million dollars penthouse in the Bahamas. Basically Singh revealed SBF was directly responsible for the misuse of customer funds. In the first phase of the trial the defense team tried to undermine the witness's credibility. Since they were working with the prosecutor probably in exchange for a lighter punishment for themselves they shouldn't be trusted. This was a key part of the defense line. Then the moment many were waiting for finally came. SBF himself took this stand to defend himself. Once again he tried to convince the jury he did not intentionally defraud customers he just made a terrible mistake. The defense needed him to make a connection with the jury on a human level that could convince the jury that in fact he was someone who was not dishonest, who could be trusted, was fundamentally a good person but who ultimately made some very bad mistakes. But SBF's decision to testify seemed to backfire when the prosecutors started asking him questions many of which remained unanswered. He came across as trying to avoid answering questions he argued in many cases that he just couldn't remember. The judge told him off for not answering the questions properly. In the end the verdict came unexpectedly quickly. SBF was found guilty of all charges. The final sentence will be announced on March 28 next year and it could mean a maximum prison term of 110 years for some. Now why does this trial matter? For those who lost money the verdict on SBF may not be the final chapter. There is an ongoing bankruptcy process that may offer a chance for FTX customers to get some of their money back. Also the verdict brings a sense of justice to those who lost their life savings because of SBF. For folks that lost money this is a moment of catharsis right this is a moment of emotional justice in a way that there is seeing someone that is supposed to have been the architect of their misfortune being brought to court being held accountable. Also the trial of SBF marks the end of one of the darkest chapters in the history of crypto. Just over a year ago Sam Beckham and Fried was seen as the golden boy of crypto. He managed to win the trust of policymakers, investors and celebrities. The FTX collapse shattered that trust and cast a shadow over the entire crypto sector. Now the path to recovery is not an easy one restoring the industry tarnished reputation will be a slow but necessary journey only through this process can the crypto world move forward. What the industry needs is customers otherwise there is no industry right if customers don't feel confident that they will be protected if they don't feel safe about where they put their money and their hard-earned wealth then they're not going to come right. Future question what's happening in the space and why we have so much trust on these exchanges. I think we need regulation to prevent this from happening number one and also number two we need to have it more legitimized within the US space and that starts with getting a Bitcoin ETF approved. Focusing on customers and protecting their assets at all costs that's the key takeaway the crypto industry should learn from the SBF saga some say that can be achieved through more clear stringent regulation others think it can be achieved by making the industry more decentralized and less reliance on centralized entities like FTX. A combination of both is likely needed to ensure there won't be another SBF. That's all for today's video if you enjoyed it please leave a like and subscribe to our channel I'm Giovanni your host see you next time