NEW YORK: Disgraced cryptocurrency wunderkind Sam Bankman-Fried is about to be sentenced on Thursday (Mar 28) following his conviction in one of many greatest monetary fraud circumstances in historical past.
US prosecutors are searching for a jail time period of 40 to 50 years after a New York jury discovered Bankman-Fried, recognized by his initials SBF, responsible in November following a five-week trial that probed the one-time excessive curler’s spectacular fall.
Calling Bankman-Fried’s seven-count conviction reflective of the defendant’s “unmatched greed and hubris”, the federal government’s sentencing request argues for vital jail time in mild of fraud it estimates at greater than US$10 billion.
Furthermore, a prolonged sentence is critical to “defend the general public”, argued US Lawyer Damian Williams, who characterised Bankman-Fried as an “adept” spin physician able to further malfeasance.
If rapidly freed, “it’s reasonable that he’ll choose a story, lean into it, and persuade different folks to half with their cash primarily based on lies and the promise of false hope”, Williams mentioned in a 113-page authorized submitting, accompanied by testimonials from dozens of victims.
Calling the federal government’s proposed sentence “barbaric”, Bankman-Fried’s attorneys depicted their shopper as a diligent younger man motivated by philanthropy who bought in over his head.
Their portrayal is much like the one SBF’s defence introduced at trial — which was rapidly rejected by jurors after simply 5 hours of deliberation.
Bankman-Fried, 32, ought to serve about six years in jail, a sentence “that returns Sam promptly to a productive function in society”, mentioned attorneys led by Marc Mukasey.
The ultimate sentence will likely be meted out by US District Choose Lewis Kaplan. Bankman-Fried will likely be given a chance to handle the courtroom previous to sentencing.
FTX IMPLOSION
A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how and a billionaire earlier than the age of 30, Bankman-Fried conquered the crypto world at breakneck pace, turning FTX, a small start-up he cofounded in 2019, into the world’s second-largest trade platform.
However in November 2022, the FTX empire imploded, unable to deal with huge withdrawal requests from clients panicked to study that among the funds saved on the firm had been dedicated to dangerous operations at Bankman-Fried’s private hedge fund, Alameda Analysis.
Through the trial, a few of Bankman-Fried’s closest associates mentioned that he was key to all the choices that noticed US$8 billion vanish from FTX.
This group included Caroline Ellison, the previous Alameda CEO and Bankman-Fried’s on-and-off-again girlfriend, who testified that Alameda had stolen “round US$14 billion” from FTX purchasers and that Bankman-Fried “directed me to commit these crimes”.
