From Bitcoin to Prison: Sam Bankman-Fried’s Sentencing and Legacy in Crypto Fraud.
In November, a Manhattan court found Sam Bankman-Fried guilty of likely “the largest fraud of the last decade.” The 32-year-old former CEO of the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for defrauding customers and investors in FTX. Despite prosecutors requesting a longer sentence, Judge Lewis Kaplan agreed with their assertions that Bankman-Fried aspired to be a highly influential figure in the country, which motivated his financial crimes.
The judge also noted that Bernie Madoff received a 150-year sentence for his Ponzi scheme and Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to over 11 years for defrauding investors at Theranos. In addition to the prison term, Bankman-Fried was ordered to forfeit $11.2 billion but ruled out restitution due to the impracticality of identifying and compensating the numerous victims.
The judge suggested a medium or lower-security facility close to San Francisco for Bankman-Fried to serve his sentence so that his family could visit him. This is a developing story that will be updated as more information becomes available.
