Mom of Sam Bankman-Fried Puts Fingers in Ears After Guilty Verdict as Judge Speaks

The mother of convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried plugged her ears as the judge in his trial thanked jurors for their verdict and work Thursday afternoon.

Stanford law professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried were in court when a California federal jury found Bankman-Fried guilty of seven fraud and money laundering charges. 

Bankman held his head in his hands and Fried fought back tears when the jury announced the verdict after fewer than five hours of deliberation.

As the verdict was read, Bankman-Fried seemed stunned, appearing stone-faced, his hands clasped before him and his lawyers sitting beside him. When he sat down, he looked down for several minutes.

Fried then put her fingers in her ears, courtroom observers noted, to apparently block out the judge after he started addressing the jury after their verdict.

When the jury left the room, Bankman-Fried's parents moved to the front row behind him. His father put his arm around his wife.

As Bankman-Fried was led out of the courtroom, he looked back and nodded toward his mother, who nodded back and then became emotional, wiping her hand over her face after he left the room.

She and her husband had become fixtures in the courtroom during the month-long trial.

The prosecution of Bankman-Fried, 31, put a spotlight on the emerging industry of cryptocurrency and a group of young executives in their 20s who lived together in a $30 million luxury apartment in the Bahamas as they dreamed of becoming the most powerful players in a new financial field.

FTX, his cryptocurrency exchange, collapsed when depositors tried to get their assets out and it was determined that billions from customer accounts had been siphoned out for other uses.

His lawyer, Mark Cohen, later read a statement outside court saying they “respect the jury’s decision. But we are very disappointed with the result.”

“Mr. Bankman Fried maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him,” Cohen said in hinting at an appeal.

He could face up to 110 years in prison when he is sentenced March 28.

With the Associated Press