Sam Bankman-Fried slapped 25-Year Prison Sentence for fraud

On Thursday, the amazing story of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, who was found guilty of stealing billions of dollars from consumers, concluded with a 25-year prison term. The story upended the crypto sector and became a cautionary tale of hubris and greed.  

Federal prosecutors had requested a sentence of 40 to 50 years for Mr. Bankman-Fried, but the jury found him guilty on charges of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering, which carried a maximum sentence of 110 years in prison. However, the sentence was significantly more than the six and a half years that his defense attorneys had asked for.  

In Federal District Court in Manhattan, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan imposed the punishment on Mr. Bankman-Fried, 32, without displaying any outward signs of emotion. His parents, the law professors Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried, sat two rows from the front, staring at the floor. 

“He knew it was wrong. He knew it was criminal,” Judge Kaplan said of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s actions. 

Before the sentence was delivered, Mr. Bankman-Fried, cleanshaven and wearing a loosefitting brown jail uniform, apologized to FTX’s customers, investors and employees. 

“A lot of people feel really let down, and they were very let down,” he said. “I’m sorry about that. I’m sorry about what happened at every stage.” He added that his decisions “haunt” him every day. 

Mr. Bankman-Fried was also ordered to forfeit about $11 billion in assets. 

Judge Kaplan cited testimony from Mr. Bankman-trial Fried's that demonstrated the FTX founder's tremendous risk appetite when determining the appropriate sentence, stating that it was in his "nature" to place extraordinarily risky wagers. He stated, "There's a chance that this man will have the opportunity to do something really terrible in the future."  

Additionally, according to Judge Kaplan, Mr. Bankman-Fried lied while testifying and refused to accept accountability for his offenses. He expressed regret for his poor wager over the possibility of being discovered. "However, he won't acknowledge anything." 

The judge stated that Mr. Bankman-Fried, who is presently being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, will be sent to a low- or medium-security prison, the judge said, very likely near his parents’ home in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

The sentencing signified the finale of a sweeping fraud case that exposed the rampant volatility and risk-taking across the loosely regulated world of cryptocurrencies. In November 2022, FTX imploded virtually overnight, erasing $8 billion in customer savings. At a trial last fall, he was convicted of seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. 

His sentence ranks as one of the longest imposed on a white-collar defendant in recent years. Bernie Madoff, who orchestrated a notorious Ponzi scheme that unraveled during the 2008 financial crisis, received a 150-year sentence in 2009. He was in his 70s and died 12 years later. Elizabeth Holmes, who was convicted of defrauding investors in her blood-testing start-up, Theranos, was sentenced to 11 years and three months in 2022.