US prosecutors want 50-year sentence for Bankman-Fried
Federal prosecutors have requested prison terms ranging from 40 to 50 years for Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, over mass fraud leading to the company’s collapse.
Lawyers have also asked that the defendant be ordered to pay $11 billion in restitution when he is sentenced on March 28 at the US District Court in Manhattan. The federal probation department separately recommended a 100-year sentence for Bankman-Fried, 32. He faces a maximum possible penalty of 110 years.
In November, Bankman-Fried was found guilty on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy linked to his ill-fated cryptocurrency exchange, the world’s second-largest at the time of its insolvency, and a related hedge fund.
“In every part of his business, and with respect to each crime committed, the defendant demonstrated a brazen disrespect for the rule of law,” prosecutors said in the filing published on Friday. They added that Bankman-Fried’s “historic” crime involved over a million of potential victims and losses of more than $10 billion.
They emphasized that the defendant “understood the rules, but decided they did not apply to him.”
Bankman-Fried was arrested last December on a long list of fraud charges after his once-successful crypto exchange, FTX, abruptly filed for bankruptcy. Prosecutors said he embezzled $8 billion in customers’ money to make investments, buy real estate, and make up for losses at a separate hedge fund, among other things, for which he faced one count of wire fraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud, and one count of money laundering conspiracy.
The government also alleged that Bankman-Fried borrowed large sums of money from FTX on behalf of his hedge fund, Alameda Research, and lied to auditors about the firm’s risk management. The fund’s former chief executive and Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, has pleaded guilty to separate charges for her role in the scheme, and testified against Bankman-Fried during his trial.
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