Lawyers for Sam Bankman Fried told a U.S. judge Tuesday that the FTX founder’s conviction for stealing $8 billion from customers of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange will result in a sentence of 63 to 78 months. He said the sentence was an appropriate punishment.
Lawyers for the jailed former billionaire, who turns 32 next week, made the request to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is scheduled to sentence Bankman Fried on March 28 in Manhattan federal court.
Bankman Freed could be sentenced to up to 110 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in November.
The federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan is expected to make its own sentencing recommendation by March 15.
Bankman Freed is expected to appeal the conviction and sentence.
Damian Williams, Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, has called the Bankman Fried case one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.
His office indicted Bankman Fried in December 2022, a month after FTX collapsed following a wave of panicked customers.
In a month-long trial, three of Bankman Fried’s former aides publicly identified themselves as responsible stewards of the volatile virtual currency market, but accused Bankman Freed of running his own hedge fund, He testified that he directed him to help plunder FTX customer funds to cover Alameda Research’s losses. .
Prosecutors say Bankman Freed used customer funds to buy luxury real estate in the Bahamas, where FTX is based, and to donate money to U.S. politicians who might support crypto-friendly regulations. He said that he had done so.
Bankman Freed testified for three days, admitting failures such as failing to build a risk management team, but denying stealing anything, saying that until shortly before both went bankrupt, Alameda owed much to FTX. He also said he was not aware that he owed money.
Bankman Fried, whose net worth was once estimated by Forbes magazine at $26 billion, has ridden the soaring value of digital assets such as Bitcoin.
Kaplan said in September that Bankman-Fried refused his request to be released from Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center during his trial, which could result in a “very long prison term” if he is convicted. said. A judge found Bankman-Fried may have tampered with witnesses and jailed him last August.
Three former close friends who testified against him, former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, former FTX technology director Gary Wang and former engineering director Nishad Singh, were all found guilty as part of their deal with prosecutors. admitted. They have not yet been sentenced.
Bankman Fried appeared in court for the first time since his conviction last week and acknowledged his intention to continue working with the new lawyer he hired to represent him until sentencing, despite a potential conflict of interest. .
