The legal team of disgraced former FTX CEO and Democratic mega-donor Sam Bankman Fried says the SBF fraud cost customers and investors an estimated $11 billion in losses. claimed it was “zero” dollars.
Judge Lewis Kaplan on Friday sentenced Bankman Fried to 25 years in prison after being found guilty of five counts of conspiracy and two counts of wire fraud in connection with the collapse of digital currency exchange FTX.
In Bankman Freed’s sentencing memo, his attorney states: claimed It argued that “the most reasonable estimate of customer losses is zero” and that FTX was “solvent at the time of the bankruptcy filing” and simply had a “lack of liquidity.”
FTX founder Sam Bankman Fried speaks at the Institute of International Finance (IIF) annual membership meeting in Washington, DC on October 13, 2022. (Ting Sheng/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“The money was there, it wasn’t lost,” the lawyers argued.
prosecutor claimed FTX’s customer losses amounted to $8 billion. Including losses for investors and lenders at FTX and FTX’s sister hedge fund, Alameda Research, the total was more than $11 billion.
In a scathing letter to Kaplan, current FTX CEO John Ray said Bankman Freed made “patently false” claims in the sentencing memo.
Breitbart News’ Lucas Nolan reported:
The letter also refutes Mr. Bankman Freed’s claims that FTX is “solvent and secure,” and says that Mr. Lay said that large sums of money were stolen by its disgraced founder, and that Mr. Lay’s assets were in real estate in the Bahamas. It pointed out that it has been converted into various assets, including cryptocurrencies and speculative ventures. Mr. Ray emphasized that while some assets were recovered through the efforts of dedicated professionals, many were not, including bribes to Chinese officials and investments grossly overpaid by Bankman Freed. . The CEO said the damage was “severe” and that Bankman Fried’s remorse was “non-existent.”
Ray said Bankman Freed falsely claimed that FTX customers deserved “a full refund” and that they could help recover more value than the team that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It is said that he did. However, Ray argues that these petitions were necessary to stem the damage caused by Bankman Freed’s crimes, and that without them the recovery rate would have been significantly lower. The CEO also said that some victims are “very unhappy” about their stolen Bitcoin, as prices have recently reached all-time highs, and that they should receive something close to its value today. He also pointed out that he thinks so.
“…When I became CEO, there were only 105 Bitcoins left on the FTX.com exchange, compared to nearly 100,000 Bitcoins in customer entitlements,” Ray said. Masu. explained.
“Mr. Bankman Freed’s victims will never be able to return to the financial position they would be in today without his huge fraud,” Ray said. I have written.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter at Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
