US prosecutors sought a jail sentence of 40-50 years after a New York jury convicted Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, guilty in November after a five-week trial that investigated the one-time high roller’s stunning collapse.
Disgraced cryptocurrency wunderkind. Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday after being convicted in one of the largest financial fraud cases in history.
During the hearing, Sam Bankman-Fried apologized for what happened at each point. And there are things I should and should not have done.
Kaplan discovered that FTX customers lost $8 billion, FTX equity investors lost $1.7 billion, and lenders to the Alameda Research hedge fund formed by Bankman-Fried lost $1.3 billion. The judge also stated that Bankman-Fried lied during his testimony when he claimed he was unaware that his hedge fund had spent customer deposits obtained from FTX.
Bankman-Fried’s court appearance
During his 20-minute remarks to the judge during the hearing, Bankman-Fried recognized that FTX customers had suffered and apologized to his former FTX colleagues, but he denied criminal activity. He intends to appeal his conviction and punishment.
Bankman-Fried told the judge, “Customers have been suffering…” I did not mean to belittle that. I also believe that something was lacking from what I said during this process, and I apologize for that. Bankman-Fried informed the judge that his FTX colleagues put a lot of effort into it, and he threw it all away. “It haunts me every day.”
Three of his former close associates appeared as prosecution witnesses at trial, claiming that he directed them to utilize FTX customer funds to cover losses at Alameda Research. All three have pleaded guilty to fraud. During the hearing, Mukasey attempted to separate his client from infamous fraudsters such as Bernie Madoff.
Bankman-Fried has been jailed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since August 2023, when Kaplan revoked his bail after determining that he likely tampered with witnesses at least twice. Kaplan said he would suggest that Bankman-Fried be transferred to a prison near San Francisco.