FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday for the massive fraud and conspiracy that doomed his cryptocurrency exchange and an associated hedge fund.
The sentence in federal court in Manhattan was well below the 40 to 50 years in prison that federal prosecutors had sought for Bankman-Fried and well above the five to six and a half years that his lawyers had suggested.
“There is a risk that this man will be capable of doing something very bad in the future,” Judge Lewis Kaplan said before sentencing the 32-year-old. “And it’s not a trivial risk at all.”
Kaplan said the sentence was “intended to disable him to the extent appropriate for an extended period of time.”
Before he was sentenced, Bankman-Fried spoke contritely about the actions that brought him to trial.
“They built something really beautiful and I threw it all away,” he said of his colleagues at FTX, a company once valued at $32 billion. “It haunts me every day.”
“A lot of people feel really disappointed. And they were very disappointed,” he said. “And
I’m sorry for that. I am sorry at every stage for what happened.
“It was unbearable to watch it all unfold,” he told Kaplan. “Customers don’t deserve this pain.
“I was the CEO of FTX and I was in charge.”
Indicted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried leaves the U.S. courthouse in New York City on July 26, 2023.
Amr Alfiky | Reuters
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement after the verdict: “Samuel Bankman-Fried orchestrated one of the largest financial frauds in history, stealing over $8 billion of his clients’ money.”
“His deliberate and persistent lies demonstrated a brazen disregard for his clients’ expectations and disregard for the rule of law, all so that he could secretly use his clients’ money to expand his own power and influence,” Williams said.
The top prosecutor said the verdict will not only prevent Bankman-Fried from committing fraud again, but also “sends an important message to others who may be tempted to engage in financial crimes that justice will be swift and the Consequences will be serious.” “
Bankman-Fried’s family said in a statement: “We are heartbroken and will continue to fight for our son.” Both Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, Stanford University law professors, were in court at the hearing.
Barbara Fried and Allan Joseph Bankman, parents of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, appear in court in New York, U.S., on Thursday, March 28, 2024, over a fraud that led to the collapse of his FTX exchange.
Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Before condemning SBF, Kaplan said he “rejected the defendant’s entire argument that there was no loss” at FTX, calling that claim “misleading, logically flawed and speculative.”
After Kaplan voted on the policy improvement, several of Bankman-Fried’s victims spoke about the harm caused to them by his crimes.
Bankman-Fried, wearing a beige prison jumpsuit, looked at the victims as they spoke to the judge.
A jury convicted Bankman-Fried of seven counts in November, holding him responsible for the roughly $10 billion in customer deposits lost in 2022.
The charges included wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud against FTX customers and against lenders to sister hedge fund Alameda Research; Conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit commodities fraud against FTX investors; and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The jury reached their verdict after deliberating for only about three hours. In a sensational, month-long trial that involved nearly 20 witnesses and hundreds of pieces of evidence, experts told CNBC they had never seen such a quick decision.
Bankman-Fried plans to appeal his conviction and sentence.
REGARD: The Collapse of FTX: Insiders Tell All
This is developing news. Check back for updates.
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2024-03-28 16:45:18
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