Former cryptocurrency boss Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the 2022 collapse of FTX, once one of the world’s most popular digital currency trading platforms.
Bankman-Fried, 32, was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy in November after a jury found he illegally used funds from FTX depositors to pay for his own expenses, including the purchase of luxury properties in the Caribbean and alleged bankruptcies. Chinese officials paid bribes and purchased private jets.
He appeared in Manhattan federal court Thursday to be sentenced in what prosecutors say is one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history.
Bankman-Fried addressed the court and apologized to the people he had “really let down”.
“They are very disappointed and I’m sorry for that,” he said. “I’m sorry for what happened at every stage. There were things I should have done and there were things I shouldn’t have done.”
He also apologized to his former colleagues at FTX, including co-founder Gary Wang and his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, both of whom abided by plea deals and testified against him.
“They put a lot of work into it and I threw it all away,” he said. “It bothers me every day.”
One of FTX’s investors, British-Indian Sunil Kavuri, lost $2.1 million (£1.7 million) in the company’s collapse. He spoke at sentencing hearings on behalf of 200 victims.
“I suffer every day,” he told the court, adding that he wanted to spend the lost money on a house and his children’s education.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said at the start of the sentencing hearing that he rejected Bankman-Fried’s argument that FTX customers had not lost their funds and would be paid in full, saying that One statement is “misleading, logically flawed, and speculative.”
He told the court: “A thief who takes his stolen goods to Las Vegas and successfully gambles with the stolen money has no right to use his Las Vegas winnings to repay what he has stolen, thereby receiving a discount on the sentence.”
Judge Kaplan said Bankman-Fried lied on the witness stand during the trial when he said he was unaware that his hedge fund, Alameda Research, had spent client deposits withdrawn from FTX. Alameda Research’s lenders lost $1.3 billion in the fraud.
Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of 40 to 50 years for his role in the $8bn (£6.3bn) fraud. His lawyer, Marc Mukasey, argued that a prison sentence of five to six-and-a-half years was appropriate for a nonviolent first-time offender.
Bankman-Fried became a billionaire as the co-founder and CEO of FTX, a now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange that allowed investors to buy everything from Bitcoin to Shiba Inu Coin Dozens of virtual currencies.
Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried, known as the “King of Cryptocurrency,” spent billions of dollars of investor funds to promote his cryptocurrency exchanges and properties, including a Super Bowl to promote his business advertising and naming rights to a stadium in the United States. Miami.
According to statistics, his net worth soared to $26 billion by the end of 2021 Forbes magazine, before he turned 30, making him the 25th richest man in the United States at the time.
The cryptocurrency price crash of 2022 hit FTX hard and ultimately led to its dramatic collapse.
He was convicted in November of seven counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering after a month-long trial in Manhattan.
This story is being updated
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