FTX Co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted of stealing billions of dollars from customers has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.
After a two-hour court hearing today, the presiding judge Lewis Kaplan disclosed that Bankman knew all along what he was doing was criminal but downplayed the possibility of being caught.
Kaplan opened the hearing by going through sentencing guidelines, stating that he rejected the defense’s argument that there “was no loss” as a result of the fraud at FTX.
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He further stated that Bankman-Fried committed perjury numerous times during his testimony in the trial, listing three specific occasions but saying that there were many more he could have added.
Bankman-Fried in response, admitted to the judge that he made a lot of mistakes, but maintained that his crypto firm FTX had the ability to repay customers when it collapsed.
He painted the fall of FTX as mismanagement and veered into what he saw as issues around the handling of its bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, in a rebuttal, Judge Kaplan rejected Bankman-Fried’s argument that customers could be paid back. He compared the former billionaire to “a thief who takes his loot to Las Vegas,” saying that Bankman-Fried was not entitled to leniency by trying to use his winning to pay back what he stole.
Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried had cost customers, investors, and lenders over $10 billion by misappropriating billions of dollars to fuel his quest for influence and dominance in the crypto industry, and had illegally used money from FTX depositors to cover his expenses, which included partying, purchasing luxury properties in the Caribbean, expensive trips and alleged bribes to Chinese officials.
The prosecutors said,
“The defendant victimized tens of thousands of people and companies, across several continents, over a period of multiple years. He stole money from customers who entrusted it to him; he lied to investors; he sent fabricated documents to lenders; he pumped millions of dollars in illegal donations into our political system; and he bribed foreign officials. Each of these crimes is worthy of a lengthy sentence”
One of the victim of FTX’s fraud who gave a statement in court, said that he suffered every day as a result of Bankman-Fried’s fraudulent actions.
In a defense, Bankman-Fried’s attorney, Marc Mukasey, argued that his client never intended to intentionally commit harm to investors. Rather, he described Bankman-Fried as an “awkward math nerd” who loves video games and animals.
Bankman-Fried crypto exchange company FTX was valued at $32bn before it went bankrupt in 2022. His crypto exchange grew to become the second largest in the world with $10-$15bn traded daily. The FTX platform had around a million registered users, ranging from institutional traders, family offices and crypto-native investors.
Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for defrauding customers and investors of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange — one of the biggest white-collar crimes in history. At his sentencing hearing Thursday in Manhattan, the 32-year-old said he was “sorry about what happened at every stage” of FTX’s headline-making implosion. Explaining his reasoning for the sentence, Judge Lewis Kaplan said there is “not a trivial risk” that Bankman-Fried “will be in a position to do something very bad in the future.” He also ordered a forfeiture of more than $11 billion.