Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Cryptocurrency Fraud
28.03.2024 - 16:35
/ variety.com
Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of the failed FTX cryptocurrency exchange, was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a federal judge Thursday. A federal jury in November 2023 convicted Bankman-Friend on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the collapse of his cryptocurrency company and related hedge fund. The charges had carried a maximum prison term of 110 years.
The U.S. government alleged that Bankman-Fried had cheated investors and customers out of upwards of $10 billion through FTX and his crytpo trading firm Alameda Research. Judge Lewis Kaplan of the U.S.
District Court for the Southern District of New York issued the 25-year sentence at a hearing. The judge increased the sentencing guidelines range for Bankman-Fried after finding that he had perjured himself during the trial and obstructed justice, and because total investor loss from FTX’s fraud was more than $550 million. Kaplan said he “rejects the entirety of defendant’s argument there was no loss” at FTX, calling the claim “misleading, logically flawed and speculative,” CNBC reported.
Federal prosecutors had recommended Bankman-Fried be sentenced to 40 to 50 years in prison; his defense team had requested a 6.5-year sentence. According to prosecutors, Bankman-Fried, known as “SBF,” perpetrated a “wide-ranging scheme… to misappropriate billions of dollars of customer funds deposited with FTX” and to “mislead investors and lenders” to FTX and Alameda Research. During the trial, Bankman-Fried, who is now 32, testified that he never committed fraud and never intended to defraud FTX’s customers.
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