He co-founder of FTX and the child prodigy of the world of cryptocurrenciesSam Bankman-Fried was sentenced this Thursday to 25 years in federal prison and to repay more than $11 billion for his conviction on charges related to fraud and money laundering.
Bankman-Fried, 32, faced a maximum sentence of more than 100 years for the seven crimes, including several counts of fraud and money laundering, but prosecutors were demanding between 40 and 50 years.
While the young man’s lawyers asked for 5 years and three months to 6 and a half years, since they assured that he intends to return the defrauded money to those affected.
The final decision was made by Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over the month-long trial in November and who also oversaw the case between writer E. Jean Carroll and former US President Donald Trump.
In November, Bankman-Fried was found guilty by a New York jury of the seven counts of fraud and money laundering with which he was charged.
Bankman-Fried, who at the age of 30 was already a millionaire thanks to the FTX cryptocurrency platform, addressed the court directly today to say that he regrets what happened and that there were things he “should have done and things he should not have done.”
The young man also admitted that he made “a series of bad decisions” as CEO of FTX and even praised his former business partners, such as co-founder Gary Wang and his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who testified against him.
Together, they all “built something beautiful,” Bankman-Fried said.
Millions of people have been affected by the fraud scheme and subsequent bankruptcy of FTX and other companies founded by Bankman-Fried.
Judge Kaplan said today that he found that the amount of losses to victims of Bankman-Fried’s crimes exceeds $550 million, the high end of the range given by federal sentencing guidelines.
FTX has stated that it expects to settle and refund customers “in full.”
FTX, which was one of the largest cryptocurrency platforms in the world and was once valued at $32 billion, collapsed in November 2022 after many users rushed to withdraw their funds amid reports that questioned the solvency of the company.
In just one year Sam Bankman-Fried went from posing on the covers of the American media as a “wunderkind” of the world of cryptocurrencies to being handcuffed on the news for being accused of federal charges of fraud and money laundering.
Source: Gestion
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