Sam Bankman-Fried, on Thursday, March 28, was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for defrauding customers and investors of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange he founded. He was convicted of stealing $8 billion from customers of the now-bankrupt FTX exchange.
The sentence hearing of Sam Bankman-Fried, took place at the Manhattan Federal Court. Presiding over the hearing, Judge Lewis Kaplan declared that the former billionaire had committed perjury during his testimony trial.
A remorseful Bankman-Fried said, "The collapse of FTX haunts me every day."
Judge Kaplan said Bankman-Fried falsely testified that he had no knowledge that Alameda had spent FTX customer deposits before the fall of 2022. "The defendant's assertion that FTX customers and creditors will be paid in full is misleading, it is logically flawed, it is speculative," Kaplan said.
Additionally, Judge Kaplan stated that Bankman-Fried engaged in witness tampering prior to his incarceration by communicating with the former FTX general counsel.
Kaplan ordered Bankman-Fried to forfeit more than $11 billion and recommended that he serve his sentence in a medium-security prison or lower, preferably in the San Francisco area.
This decision was based on Bankman-Fried's minimal likelihood of posing a physical threat to others and his vulnerability due to autism and social awkwardness in a high-security facility.
"A lot of people feel really let down, and they were very let down, and I am sorry about that. I am sorry about what happened at every stage. And there are things I should've done and things I shouldn't have," Bankman-Fried said in his testimony.
SBF expressed his anguish over the suffering endured by FTX's customers. "It's been excruciating to watch," he said. He also admitted responsibility for the pain inflicted as CEO. "I'm not the one that matters at the end of the day — it's the customers and employees affected that matter."
Seeming to acknowledge his looming prison sentence, he said, "My useful life is probably over. It's been over for a while now."
Bankman-Fried, now 32, stood trial last year on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the collapse of FTX in November 2022. The jury's guilty verdict on November 2 marked a significant blow to the former billionaire, with prosecutors labelling the case as one of the most substantial financial frauds in US history.
Judge Kaplan said the losses incurred by FTX customers, equity investors, and hedge fund lenders amounted to billions of dollars, rejecting any notion of restitution through ill-gotten gains.
(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)
First Published: Mar 28, 2024 8:35 PM IST
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