Sam Bankman-Fried Conquers the Cryptocurrency World at Breakthrough Speed (File)
Washington:
U.S. prosecutors are asking the court to sentence cryptocurrency tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried to 40 to 50 years in prison for massive fraud that cost customers $8 billion, court documents showed on Friday.
The founder and CEO of the FTX cryptocurrency trading platform faces sentencing on March 28 after being found guilty of seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering in early November.
“A sentence of 40 to 50 years in prison … is necessary to reflect the seriousness of the defendant’s crimes,” the prosecutors’ sentencing memorandum said.
Bankman-Fried’s defense team reportedly asked for a sentence of about six years in prison.
Prosecutor Damian Williams said after the verdict that Bankman Fried “committed one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history, a multi-billion-dollar Plan to make him the King of Cryptocurrency”.
Bankman-Fried, an MIT graduate who became a billionaire before the age of 30, conquered the cryptocurrency world at breakneck speed, building FTX, a small startup he co-founded in 2019, into the world’s No. Two major cryptocurrency companies. -The largest communication platform.
But in November 2022, the FTX empire collapsed, unable to cope with massive withdrawal requests from customers, who were horrified to learn that some of the funds stored by the company had been used for high-risk operations at Bankman-Fried’s personal hedge fund Alameda Research. .
Some of his closest associates testified during the trial that he was key to all the decisions that led to $8 billion disappearing from his FTX trading platform.
The star witness in the trial was Caroline Ellison, the former Alameda CEO and Bankman Fried’s on-again, off-again girlfriend.
She told the jury they stole “approximately $14 billion” from FTX clients and that Bankman-Fried, as Alameda’s owner, “directed me to commit these crimes.”
The money was used to fund venture capital deals and political donations, as well as luxury real estate in the Bahamas.
It has also paid tens of millions of dollars to celebrities such as Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen for their endorsement of FTX and purchased naming rights to the Miami Heat’s home arena.
Bankman-Fried admitted during the trial that he had made “mistakes” but denied trying to deceive anyone.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
