Sam Bankman-Fried gets 25-year sentence for FTX fraud

In a dramatic end to his fall from grace, Sam Bankman-Fried received a 25-year prison sentence on Thursday for stealing $8 billion from customers of the collapsed crypto exchange, FTX, which he created.

At a court hearing in Manhattan, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan delivered the verdict, rejecting Bankman-Fried's claim that FTX users didn't actually suffer losses and deciding that he was untruthful in his court statements. A jury convicted 32-year-old Bankman-Fried of seven fraud and conspiracy charges due to FTX's collapse in 2022, which prosecutors called a major financial fraud in U.S. history.

Kaplan said that Bankman-Fried has not expressed regret.

Kaplan stated that Bankman-Fried knew it was wrong. He was aware that it was illegal. He feels awful about the poor wager he placed on the possibility of being discovered. But, as is his right, he will not acknowledge anything.

During a 20-minute statement, Bankman-Fried, wearing a beige jail T-shirt, apologized to his former FTX coworkers and acknowledged that FTX customers suffered, but he did not admit to any criminal actions.

He has sworn to challenge his verdict and punishment.

Bankman-Fried stood with his hands clasped in front of him as Kaplan read the sentence. His defense lawyer, Marc Mukasey, spoke with him quickly before he was escorted out of the courthouse by agents of the US Marshals Service.

The conviction was the last straw in the U.S. efforts to clean up digital currency trading, leading to a dramatic fall from grace for Bankman-Fried, who once held considerable wealth and political influence and now faces severe penalties.

Kaplan discovered that FTX's equity investors lost $1.7 billion, its customers lost $8 billion, and lenders to Alameda Research lost $1.3 billion. He permitted the government to return the confiscated assets to the victims and ordered the seizure of $11 billion.