Bankman-Fried, 32, sentenced for stealing $8bn from clients of the FTX cryptocurrency trade he based.
Former crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 25 years in United States federal jail for stealing $8bn from clients of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency trade he based.
US District Decide Lewis Kaplan handed down the sentence at a Manhattan court docket listening to on Thursday after rejecting Bankman-Fried’s declare that FTX clients didn’t really lose cash and accusing him of mendacity throughout his trial testimony.
A jury discovered Bankman-Fried, 32, responsible on November 2 on seven fraud and conspiracy counts stemming from FTX’s 2022 collapse in what prosecutors have referred to as one of many largest monetary frauds in US historical past.
“He knew it was improper,” Kaplan mentioned of Bankman-Fried earlier than handing down the sentence. “He knew it was felony. He regrets that he made a really dangerous wager concerning the probability of getting caught. However he isn’t going to confess a factor, as is his proper.”
Bankman-Fried stood along with his palms clasped earlier than him as Kaplan learn the sentence.
Kaplan mentioned the sentence mirrored “that there’s a threat that this man will probably be in place to do one thing very dangerous sooner or later. And it’s not a trivial threat in any respect.”
Previous to sentencing, Bankman-Fried had mentioned: “My helpful life might be over. It’s been over for some time now, from earlier than my arrest.”
Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey, reporting from New York, mentioned that Bankman-Fried may have acquired as much as 110 years behind bars for his crimes and that the 25-year sentence was lower than the 40-50 years that prosecutors had been searching for.
“Given the dimensions of this crime, one of many largest frauds in historical past, the decide took a really robust stance but additionally confirmed some flexibility… maybe primarily based on the arguments made by Bankman-Fried’s attorneys and his household that he had at all times meant to do good”, she mentioned.
Bankman-Fried had billed himself as a proponent of efficient altruism – discovering the easiest way to assist different individuals, specifically by donating all or a part of one’s wealth to charity relatively than, say, volunteering at a soup kitchen.
When the cryptocurrency world lurched into disaster within the spring of 2022, he purchased shares within the troubled platform BlockFi and one other troubled firm, Voyager.
Nonetheless, prosecutors have mentioned the accountable picture he cultivated hid his years-long embezzlement of buyer funds.
“The defendant victimised tens of hundreds of individuals and firms, throughout a number of continents, over a interval of a number of years. He stole cash from clients who entrusted it to him” prosecutors mentioned in a court docket submitting.