A New York Federal Court has sentenced Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto exchange FTX, to 25 years in prison for defrauding investors.
The ex-crypto boss was convicted in a ruling on Thursday, March 28, 2024, delivered by Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York.
Kaplan, the presiding judge, emphasized that Bankman-Fried’s obstruction of justice and witness tampering were factors considered in the sentencing process.
During the two-hour hearing, Judge Kaplan remarked that Bankman-Fried was aware of the criminal nature of his actions and acknowledged misjudging the risk of being apprehended.
Appearing in court in a beige jailhouse jumpsuit, Bankman-Fried adopted a remorseful stance, admitting to a series of “selfish” decisions made during his leadership of FTX and expressing regret for squandering it all away.
He described the weight of his actions as haunting him daily, acknowledging numerous mistakes.
Despite Bankman-Fried’s assertions, prosecutors asserted that he deceived unsuspecting customers, amassing over $10 billion in what they labeled as “one of the biggest financial frauds” in US history.
Prosecutors sought a maximum sentence of 50 years, while Bankman-Fried’s legal team advocated for no more than six and a half years.
Bankman-Fried was convicted on seven criminal counts in November and has been in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since.
Bankman-Fried, once the co-founder and CEO of FTX, found himself worth billions of dollars on paper as FTX rose to become the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange – once valued at $32.
FTX offered investors access to a wide range of virtual currencies, including popular ones like Bitcoin and more obscure ones like Shiba Inu Coin.
With ample funds from investors, Bankman-Fried even splurged on a Super Bowl advertisement to boost his business and acquired the naming rights to an arena in Miami.
However, the cryptocurrency market crash in 2022 dealt a severe blow to FTX, eventually leading to its downfall.
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