March 28 (UPI) — FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday after he was found guilty on fraud charges related to the downfall of the failed cryptocurrency exchange.
Bankman-Fried, 32, appeared in a Manhattan court, where Judge Lewis Kaplan delivered the sentence.
He was convicted in November on two wire fraud conspiracy counts, two counts of wire fraud, one money-laundering conspiracy count, plus commodities fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
The wire fraud and money laundering charges each carried a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while the other charges carry a maximum sentence of five years each.
Prosecutors called for 40 to 50 years in prison, saying FTX customers lost a total of $8 billion, while FTX equity investors lost more than $1 billion. Lenders to Alameda, Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, also lost more than $1 billion.
Prosecutors pointed out that Bankman-Fried’s victims include people who deposited their retirement funds with his company and people who lost their entire life savings.
Bankman-Fried, they said, “victimized tens of thousands of people and companies, across several continents, over a period of multiple years.”
“He stole money from customers who entrusted it to him, he lied to investors, he sent fabricated documents to lenders, he pumped millions of dollars in illegal donations into our political system, and he bribed foreign officials. Each of these crimes is worthy of a lengthy sentence,” prosecutors added.
Prosecutors said the lengthy sentence would have been justified, arguing in a court document that Bankman-Fried has “never accepted responsibility for what he has done.”
“At no point has he shown any willingness to admit culpability for fraud and deceit or show genuine remorse for his conduct,” they said.
After he was found guilty, attorney Mark S. Cohen said in a statement that Bankman-Fried “maintains his innocence” and would continue to fight the charges.
The defense urged Kaplan to sentence Bankman-Fried to a range of 63 to 78 months because they argue victims may be able to get most of the lost money back.
Bankruptcy attorney Andrew Dietderich said that while there is still a lot of work and risk to get all money back to victims, the team leading the FTX bankruptcy estate has a “strategy to achieve it.”
Citing a Delaware court filing, CNBC reported the FTX estate reached an agreement this week to sell a stake in artificial intelligence company Anthropic for $884 million.
