Fallen ‘Crypto King’ gets 25 years for fraud
NEW YORK - Sam BankmanFried was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a judge on Thursday for stealing $8 billion from customers of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange he founded, the last step in the former billionaire wunderkind’s dramatic downfall.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan handed down the sentence at a Manhattan court hearing after rejecting Bankman-Fried’s claim that FTX customers did not actually lose money and finding that he lied during his trial testimony. A jury found Bankman-Fried, 32, guilty on Nov. 2 on seven fraud and conspiracy counts stemming from FTX’s 2022 collapse in what prosecutors have called one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history.
Mr Kaplan said Bankman-Fried has shown no remorse.
“He knew it was wrong,” Mr Kaplan said.
“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, wearing a beige short-sleeve jail T-shirt, acknowledged during 20 minutes of remarks to the judge that FTX customers had suffered and he offered an apology to his former FTX colleagues - but did not admit criminal wrongdoing.
He has vowed to appeal his conviction and sentence.
Bankman-Fried stood with his hands clasped before him as Mr Kaplan read the sentence. He then spoke with his defence lawyer Marc Mukasey briefly before being led out of the courtroom by members of the US Marshals Service.
The sentence marked the culmination of Bankman-Fried’s plunge
from an ultra-wealthy entrepreneur and major political donor to the biggest trophy to date in a crackdown by US authorities on malfeasance in cryptocurrency markets.
“There are serious consequences for defrauding customers and investors,” US Attorney-General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “Anyone who believes they can hide their financial crimes behind wealth and power, or behind a shiny new thing they claim no one else is smart enough to understand, should think twice.”
Mr Kaplan found that FTX customers lost $8 billion, FTX’s equity investors lost $1.7 billion, and that lenders to the Alameda Research hedge fund Bankman-Fried founded lost $1.3 billion. He imposed an $11 billion forfeiture order and authorised the government to repay victims with seized assets.
Federal prosecutors had sought a sentence of 40 to 50 years. Mr Mukasey had argued for a sentence of less than 5-1/4 years.