NEW YORK: Disgraced cryptocurrency wunderkind Sam Bankman-Fried is set to be sentenced on Thursday (Mar 28) following his conviction in one of the biggest financial fraud cases in history.
US prosecutors are seeking a prison term of 40 to 50 years after a New York jury found Bankman-Fried, known by his initials SBF, guilty in November following a five-week trial that probed the one-time high roller’s spectacular fall.
Calling Bankman-Fried’s seven-count conviction reflective of the defendant’s “unmatched greed and hubris”, the government’s sentencing request argues for significant jail time in light of fraud it estimates at more than US$10 billion.
Moreover, a lengthy sentence is necessary to “protect the public”, argued US Attorney Damian Williams, who characterised Bankman-Fried as an “adept” spin doctor capable of additional malfeasance.
If quickly freed, “it is realistic that he will settle on a narrative, lean into it, and convince other people to part with their money based on lies and the promise of false hope”, Williams said in a 113-page legal filing, accompanied by testimonials from dozens of victims.
Calling the government’s proposed sentence “barbaric”, Bankman-Fried’s attorneys depicted their client as a diligent young man motivated by philanthropy who got in over his head.
Their portrayal is similar to the one SBF’s defence presented at trial – which was quickly rejected by jurors after just five hours of deliberation.
Bankman-Fried, 32, should serve about six years in prison, a sentence “that returns Sam promptly to a productive role in society”, said attorneys led by Marc Mukasey.
The final sentence will be meted out by US District Judge Lewis Kaplan. Bankman-Fried will be given an opportunity to address the court prior to sentencing.
FTX IMPLOSION
A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a billionaire before the age of 30, Bankman-Fried conquered the crypto world at breakneck speed, turning FTX, a small start-up he cofounded in 2019, into the world’s second-largest exchange platform.
But in November 2022, the FTX empire imploded, unable to cope with massive withdrawal requests from customers panicked to learn that some of the funds stored at the company had been committed to risky operations at Bankman-Fried’s personal hedge fund, Alameda Research.
During the trial, some of Bankman-Fried’s closest associates said that he was key to all the decisions that saw US$8 billion vanish from FTX.
This group included Caroline Ellison, the former Alameda CEO and Bankman-Fried’s on-and-off-again girlfriend, who testified that Alameda had stolen “around US$14 billion” from FTX clients and that Bankman-Fried “directed me to commit those crimes”.
