Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in jail by a decide on Thursday for stealing $8 billion from prospects of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency trade.
Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in jail by a decide on Thursday for stealing $8 billion from prospects of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency trade he based, the final step within the former billionaire wunderkind’s dramatic downfall.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan handed down the sentence at a Manhattan court docket listening to after rejecting Bankman-(*25*) declare that FTX prospects didn’t really lose cash and accusing him of mendacity throughout his trial testimony. A jury discovered Bankman-Fried, 32, responsible on Nov. 2 on seven fraud and conspiracy counts stemming from FTX’s 2022 collapse in what prosecutors have known as one of the largest monetary frauds in U.S. historical past.
Kaplan mentioned Bankman-Fried had proven no regret. “He knew it was wrong,” Kaplan mentioned of Bankman-Fried earlier than handing down the sentence. “He knew it was criminal. He regrets that he made a very bad bet about the likelihood of getting caught. But he is not going to admit a thing, as is his right.”
Bankman-Fried stood along with his palms clasped earlier than him as Kaplan learn the sentence. He was led out of the courtroom by members of the U.S. Marshals Service when the listening to ended. Bankman-Fried, carrying a beige short-sleeve jail t-shirt, acknowledged throughout 20 minutes of remarks to the decide that FTX prospects had suffered and he supplied an apology to his former FTX colleagues.
The sentence marked the end result of Bankman-(*25*) plunge from an ultra-wealthy entrepreneur and main political donor to the largest trophy to date in a crackdown by U.S. authorities on malfeasance in cryptocurrency markets. Bankman-Fried has vowed to attraction his conviction and sentence.
Kaplan mentioned he had discovered that FTX prospects misplaced $8 billion, FTX’s fairness traders misplaced $1.7 billion, and that lenders to the Alameda Research hedge fund Bankman-Fried based misplaced $1.3 billion.
“The defendant’s assertion that FTX customers and creditors will be paid in full is misleading, it is logically flawed, it is speculative,” Kaplan mentioned. “A thief who takes his loot to Las Vegas and successfully bets the stolen money is not entitled to a discount on the sentence by using his Las Vegas winnings to pay back what he stole.”
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The decide additionally mentioned Bankman-Fried lied throughout his trial testimony when he mentioned he didn’t know that his hedge fund had spent buyer deposits taken from FTX. Federal prosecutors had sought a jail sentence of 40 to 50 years. Bankman-(*25*) protection lawyer Marc Mukasey had argued {that a} sentence of lower than 5-1/4 years could be applicable.
Addressing the decide, Bankman-Fried mentioned, “Customers have been suffering… I didn’t at all mean to minimize that. I also think that’s something that was missing from what I’ve said over the course of this process, and I’m sorry for that.”
Referring to his FTX colleagues, Bankman-Fried informed the decide, “They put a lot of themselves into it, and I threw that all away. It haunts me every day.” Three of his former shut associates testified as prosecution witnesses at trial that he had directed them to use FTX buyer funds to plug losses at Alameda Research.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA employees and is printed from Reuters.)
