Sam Bankman-Fried, the 32-year-old FTX co-founder, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for seven counts of conspiracy and fraud charges on Thursday, March 28. The charges come from the collapse of the crypto exchange, where his customers lost an estimated $8 billion after FTX went bankrupt.
The judge stated that Bankman-Fried’s defense team’s claims that FTX customers would be paid back were “logically flawed” and “speculative.” The judge said Bankman-Fried lied about when he found out about the missing $8 billion.
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Prosecutors requested that Bankman-Fried be sentenced to 40-50 years behind bars, and the defense requested 6 1/2 years in prison. However, Bankman-Fried’s sentence is less than the maximum sentence, which reportedly would have been up to 110 years in prison.
Investigators claim that Bankman-Fried used the money invested by customers to pay off loans, buy lavish real estate and cover losses at his hedge fund, according to ABC News.
Prosecutors argued that investors originally trusted Bankman-Fried with their money, but in the end, some lost everything. Bankman-Fried even assured investors that their money was safe on social media.
Bankman-Fried’s crimes have been compared to those of Bernie Madoff, who pulled off an allegedly elaborate Ponzi scheme. However, Bankman-Fried’s attorney attempted to distance his client from what he referred to as “that level of depravity.”
In addition to the prison sentence, the judge ordered Bankman-Fried to pay $11 billion in restitution. Bankman-Fried’s crimes involved around 200 victims.
