Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, who was convicted of fraud and money laundering last year, appeared before the judge for a criminal hearing in New York, USA. Bankman-Fried’s mother, Barbara Fried, and father, Allan Joseph Bankman, were also present at the hearing.
Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried committed “one of the largest financial frauds in history and arguably the largest fraud of the last decade” and used more than $8 billion in customer funds for his own purposes.
Marc Mukasey, lawyer for Bankman-Fried, nicknamed the “Crypto King,” argued that his client worked hard to get his clients’ money back after the collapse of FTX.
Bankman-Fried, who was given the right to speak, said: “I made a series of bad decisions. “There are a lot of mistakes I made,” he said, and claimed that “refunds can be given” to FTX customers.
“LOGICALLY DEFECTIVE AND SPECULATIVE”
Judge Lewis Kaplan said, “The defendant’s claim that full payments will be made to FTX customers and creditors is misleading, logically flawed and speculative.” Judge Kaplan said it was clear that Bankman-Fried was motivated by political influence, and noted that Bankman-Fried “has not expressed a single word of remorse for the commission of terrible crimes” regarding the customer losses.
Judge Kaplan sentenced Bankman-Fried, who was found guilty of 7 crimes, including fraud and money laundering, to 25 years in prison.
Bankman-Fried was caught in the Bahamas on December 13, 2022 and was released on $250 million bail and sentenced to house arrest. Prosecutors had requested a 50-year prison sentence for Bankman-Fried.