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Quick answers
When did FTX collapse?
Withdrawals failed in the first week of November 2022 after a CoinDesk report on Alameda's balance sheet and a public spat over the FTT token. Chapter 11 petitions were filed on 11 November 2022.
What was Sam Bankman-Fried convicted of?
On 2 November 2023 a Southern District of New York jury convicted him on seven counts, including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers and lenders, and related conspiracy counts (securities, commodities, and money-laundering conspiracies as charged).
What sentence did he receive?
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan imposed 25 years on 28 March 2024, plus forfeiture set out in the judgment. He appealed. The trial-court sentence is the encyclopedia's recorded term unless an appellate court changes it.
Who cooperated?
Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, and Nishad Singh pleaded guilty and cooperated with the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Their pleas and testimony were central to the government's case.
What was Alameda Research?
A trading firm founded by Bankman-Fried before FTX and still under his control. Prosecutors and cooperators described it as the entity that used FTX customer assets. Ellison was its CEO at the collapse.
Did customers get money back?
The Delaware bankruptcy estate reported substantial recoveries and a claims process that, in later public updates, pointed toward high nominal recovery on allowed customer claims. That civil result is separate from the criminal conviction.
The public investigation begins with a trade-press leak and a run, then becomes a standard SDNY white-collar case plus a large Chapter 11.
This page records those steps. It does not describe how to commingle or conceal customer property.
Agencies
- U.S. Attorney, Southern District of New York — Charged Bankman-Fried and took the cooperating pleas; tried the case before Judge Kaplan in 2023.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation / CFTC / SEC — Supported the criminal case and brought parallel civil actions against Bankman-Fried and entities as set out in 2022-2023 complaints.
- Bahamian authorities — Arrested Bankman-Fried in December 2022 and handled extradition; also asserted local interest in FTX Digital Markets.
- Delaware bankruptcy court (estate) — Supervised Ray's Chapter 11, asset sales, and the customer claims process that later reported large recoveries.
What followed
- Trade-press publication
CoinDesk's 2 November 2022 article put Alameda's balance sheet into the market.
- Run and failed sale
Withdrawals and a collapsed Binance letter of intent left the exchange unable to open as before.
- Chapter 11
Petitions on 11 November 2022 preserved what assets Ray's team could find and started the civil reconstruction.
- Arrest and extradition
The December 2022 Nassau arrest and later removal to New York started the criminal custody clock.
- Cooperating pleas
Ellison, Wang, and Singh pleaded and proffered, giving prosecutors an insider chorus before trial.
- Trial, verdict, sentence
October-November 2023 evidence; 2 November verdict; 28 March 2024 sentence.
Turning points
- The CoinDesk article — Without the 2 November 2022 publication the run week has no public hinge. The piece did not convict anyone; it made the books a market event.
- The cooperating pleas — Once the operating inner circle pleaded, the trial was about corroboration and intent, not about whether a hole existed.
- The defendant testified — Bankman-Fried took the stand. The jury's seven-count conviction followed a credibility contest the government won.
After-the-fact investigators reconstructed a November 2022 failure. The jury then named it fraud. Customer recovery is a later civil chapter.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.