FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried convicted of fraud

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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud and money laundering in a verdict that is likely to condemn the former crypto tycoon to decades in prison and bolster US authorities’ attempts to bring an unruly financial sector to heel.

The decision in the highest-profile cryptocurrency-related trial to date was delivered yesterday evening, following less than five hours of deliberation by the New York jury’s nine women and three men over seven charges, including wire fraud on FTX customers and conspiracy to commit securities fraud and money laundering. He was convicted on all counts.

Shortly after the verdict, US attorney Damian Williams said Bankman-Fried had carried out a fraud “designed to make him the king of crypto”. While “the cryptocurrency industry might be new . . . this kind of corruption is as old as time”.

Mark Cohen, a lawyer for Bankman-Fried, said: “We 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.” Here’s more from the landmark verdict.

And here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today and this weekend:

• Economic data: The UK has its services purchasing manager’s index from S&P Global and Cips, and the British Retail Consortium releases its monthly footfall monitor today. The US publishes October labour data.

• UK politics: Tory MP Bob Stewart goes on trial today for allegedly racially abusing an activist in London last December. The Scottish Liberal Democrats hold their annual conference tomorrow in Edinburgh.

• Turkish politics: Turkey’s main opposition decides tomorrow whether to retain defeated presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu as its party leader after his loss to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

• Results: BMW reports today, and Berkshire Hathaway reports tomorrow.

Join the Global Boardroom next Wednesday, where top FT journalists meet leaders in government and business. Speakers include the president of the European Central Bank, chief economist of the World Bank Group and the CEOs of Novartis, Nasdaq and more. Register for free today.

Five more top stories

1. Israel’s military said yesterday that it had surrounded Gaza City, Hamas’s political and military base. The move into a new phase of its ground offensive against the Palestinian militant group came despite calls from allies, including US president Joe Biden, for a pause in fighting in the enclave. Here are more details on the latest movements in the war.

• ‘Bibi’s finished’: Israel’s prime minister is losing even strong supporters of his centre-right Likud party, who are angry at his refusal to shoulder blame for Hamas’s deadly attack.

• US-Israel: The House of Representatives passed a bill to give Israel $14bn in new aid, but it is set to face resistance in the Senate and from the White House for failing to fund Ukraine and other priorities.

2. Exclusive: BlackRock foresees benchmark US borrowing costs hovering around 5.5 per cent for the next five years as investors grapple with inflationary pressures. Ten-year Treasury yields are at 4.7 per cent following a sharp rally, but markets are heading for much higher rates, said the head of the BlackRock Investment Institute. Here are the reasons for his forecast.

• Opinion: Higher, more volatile inflation and a return to structurally higher interest rates will characterise a “new abnormal”, writes Jason Cummins, chief US economist at Brevan Howard.

3. Exclusive: The IMF has raised alarm over potential “contagion” from private capital in life insurance to the wider financial sector. The group urged regulators to bear down on the liquidity risks presented by the shift in ownership, with almost 10 per cent of the US life insurance industry’s assets owned or managed by buyout firms by the end of 2021. Read the full story.

4. Artificial intelligence will eventually render all jobs obsolete, Elon Musk told Rishi Sunak in a wide-ranging conversation yesterday evening after the UK closed its two-day AI safety summit. The tech billionaire told the prime minister AI was the “most disruptive force in history”, and that there would come a time when “no job is needed”. Here’s more from their discussion.

5. Apple shares fell nearly 3 per cent after the company failed to dispel Wall Street’s concerns about a lacklustre outlook for its hardware businesses and potential pressure on its position in China. The drop came despite an unexpectedly strong acceleration in its services business and a return to growth for the iPhone. Here are more details from Apple’s results yesterday.

How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.

News in-depth

In the weeks before the UK’s first lockdown, with the country unprepared for the pandemic, then-prime minister Boris Johnson, other ministers and Whitehall mandarins went on holiday, the country’s official pandemic inquiry has heard this week. A series of damning testimonies has laid bare a “toxic” and “macho” culture at the heart of government that hampered the country’s response to a health crisis that has killed more than 227,000 people in Britain.

We’re also reading . . . 

Chart of the day

Andrew Bailey was at pains to stress his resolve to further raise interest rates if necessary yesterday, as the Bank of England governor warned there was a long way to go before policymakers could relax about inflation. The UK’s central bank held rates at 5.25 per cent yesterday even as it warned of a stagnating economy. 

Take a break from the news

Billed as the Beatles’ last song, “Now and Then” has just been released — an odd notion for a band that broke up in 1970, half of whose members are no longer alive. But after Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr fleshed out the original 1979 demo recording, with help from machine-learning technology, the song has new solidarity and emotional heft, writes pop critic Ludovic Hunter-Tilney.

Additional contributions from Gordon Smith and Emily Goldberg