Sam Bankman-Fried criminal trial starts today — here’s what’s at

A year ago, Sam Bankman-Fried was revered as a titan of the industry and living large at a $40 million penthouse in the Bahamas, while he ran a crypto empire valued at $32 billion. On Tuesday morning in a Manhattan federal court in New York, the now disgraced founder and ex-CEO of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX will stand trial for allegedly masterminding one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history.

Here is what you need to know about the multi-week trial that starts today, the government’s case against 31-year-old Bankman-Fried, and how we got here.

A superseding indictment alleges that Bankman-Fried misused billions of dollars worth of customer money for personal purchases, including buying more than $200 million of upscale real estate properties in the Bahamas, as well as to cover bad bets made at his crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research. The government says customer cash was shuttled to Alameda via two channels: Users depositing cash directly into accounts held by Alameda and through a secret backdoor that was baked into FTX’s code.

Prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, who contend that more than $8 billion of customers’ money has gone missing, also allege that Bankman-Fried defrauded FTX investors by covering up the scheme.

The government has separately accused SBF of using customer funds to make more than $100 million in campaign contributions for the 2022 midterm elections.

The full list of charges are:

• Conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers of FTX.
• Wire fraud on customers of FTX.
• Conspiracy to commit wire fraud on lenders to Alameda Research.
• Wire fraud on lenders to Alameda Research.
• Conspiracy to commit fraud on customers of FTX in connection with purchase and sale of derivatives.
• Conspiracy to commit securities fraud on investors in FTX.
• Conspiracy to commit money laundering.

A conviction on all counts could land him more than 100 years in prison. Bankman-Fried, who is the son of two Stanford legal scholars, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial is expected to last up to six weeks, and it kicks off at 9:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday with jury selection. From there, the prosecution will take roughly four weeks to lay out its case, and the defense will take another one to two weeks to present its side.

It’s not yet known whether Bankman-Fried will testify, but the witness roster is expected to include his top deputies at FTX and Alameda, who also happened to comprise his innermost social circle before his crypto empire imploded.

The list of cooperating witnesses anticipated to take the stand include Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, and his…