Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison for his FTX crimes
That's how long the internet sensation Following his conviction on seven counts of fraud related to the collapse of a cryptocurrency exchange that was once regarded as a major player in the financial industry, Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to jail on Thursday.
Judge Lewis Kaplan sentencing Bankman-Fried in a Manhattan courthouse, warning that she "will be in a position to do something very bad in the future, and it's not a trivial risk."
CNN reports that Kaplan also chastised Bankman-Fried for her lack of regret.
Bankman-Fried expressed regret for the demise of FTX in court, but he refrained from assigning blame.
According to CNN, Bankman-Fried apologized to the court for "letting a lot of people down and making them feel very let down." "I apologize for all that transpired at every turn. I also did some things that I shouldn't have done and some that I should have."
For Bankman-Fried, who has always denied committing fraud since the fall of the FTX, it was an uncommon show of remorse.
With his conviction last year, Bankman Fried, a 32-year-old former CEO who formerly partied with international luminaries like former President Clinton and quarterback Tom Brady, took a major hit.
Bankman-Fried's attorneys had requested significantly less time in prison than the 40–50 years that the prosecution had requested.
The following details pertain to Bankman-sentence Fried's and his conviction.
What was Bankman-Fried convicted of?
Bankman-Fried was convicted of seven counts of fraud by a New York jury last year.
The charges broadly covered two categories: stealing the money of customers who put their money into FTX accounts and lying to investors and creditors.
All in all, at least $8 billion in customer funds were believed to have been stolen. Prosecutors argued the money was used to fuel a lavish and luxurious lifestyle in the Bahamas, as well as for other purposes, like political lobbying and investing in other companies.
What kind of sentencing did Bankman-Fried face?
Sentencing guidelines recommended that the disgraced crypto evangelist serve up to 110 years behind bars, though prosecutors asked for about half of that.
Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried's lawyers argued that their client should serve 63 to 78 months in prison.
Ultimately, the decision was up to Kaplan, a judge who has ruled in high-profile cases including most recently presiding over E. Jean Carroll's defamation case against former president Trump.
During the Bankman-Fried trial, Kaplan kept a strictly business approach, frequently admonishing the former FTX CEO's lawyers when he felt they were going on tangents unrelated to the case.
What were the factors Judge Kaplan considered?
At its heart Kaplan had to weigh this central question: Was Bankman-Fried a criminal mastermind or a young computer geek who simply got in over his head?
In their 116-page sentencing memo, prosecutors argued the former FTX head showed "unmatched greed and hubris" and that he gambled with other people's money."
"Justice requires that he receive a prison sentence commensurate with the extraordinary dimensions of his crimes," the prosecutors said in the memo.
Prosecutors also called Bankman-Fried's crimes "one of the largest financial frauds of all time."
Bankman-Fried's lawyers, however, had pushed back aggressively against the prosecutors sentence recommendation, saying it incorrectly paints the former FTX head as a "depraved super villain."
Lawyers had also argued Bankman-Fried suffers from autism and "neurodiversity" issues.
"He can be perceived as abrupt, dismissive, evasive, detached or uncaring," the lawyers wrote in their sentencing memo.
In asking for leniency, Bankman-Fried's lawyers have also argued that customers and creditors are likely to be paid eventually in full.
During the sentencing hearing on Thursday, Marc Mukasey, Bankman-Fried's lawyer, said his client was not a "ruthless financial serial killer who set out every morning to hurt people."
"His real motivations were misapprehended and misunderstood," Mukasey said, according to CNN.
"Really he's an awkward math nerd," he added. "He loves video games and veganism, and he's compassionate to animals.
A lot of FTX holdings were held in cryptocurrencies, which have a staged a huge rebound this year, as well as in stakes of other companies that are in the process of being sold off.
Prosecutors, however, have underscored that Bankman-Fried stole customers funds, and presented letters from people around the world detailing how much the loss of their crypto holdings in FTX had hurt them, both personally and financially.
