Source: AFP
US prosecutors have asked a jury to sentence disgraced cryptocurrency tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried to 40 to 50 years in prison for a massive fraud that cost customers $8 billion, according to court documents Friday.
The founder and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX will face sentencing on March 28 after pleading guilty in early November to seven counts including fraud, conspiracy and money laundering.
“A prison term of 40 to 50 years … is necessary to reflect the seriousness of the defendant’s crimes,” the prosecution’s sentencing brief states.
Bankman-Fried’s defense team had reportedly asked for a sentence of about six years.
Prosecutor Damian Williams said after the verdict that Bankman-Fried “perpetrated one of the largest financial frauds in American history, a multibillion-dollar scheme designed to make him king of crypto.”
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![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/49bfbd1414c7071f.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
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A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a billionaire before the age of 30, Bankman-Fried conquered the cryptocurrency world at breakneck speed, turning FTX, a small start-up he founded in 2019, into the world’s second -the largest exchange platform.
But in November 2022, the FTX empire collapsed, unable to cope with massive withdrawal requests from customers panicked when they learned that some of the funds stored in the company had been committed to risky trades at Bankman-Fried’s personal hedge fund, Alameda Research.
Some of his closest associates testified during the trial that he was the key to all the decisions that wiped $8 billion from the FTX trading platform.
The star in the lawsuit was Caroline Ellison, Alameda’s former CEO and Bankman-Fried’s on-again, off-again girlfriend.
He told jurors that they had stolen “approximately $14 billion” from FTX customers and that Bankman-Fried, as the owner of Alameda, “led me to commit these crimes.”
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![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/beb0ec585bf6d5ed.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
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This money was used to finance venture capital deals and political contributions, as well as odd real estate in the Bahamas.
He also ended up paying celebrities, including Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen, tens of millions of dollars to win their support for FTX, as well as to buy the naming rights to the Miami Heat’s arena.
Bankman-Fried admitted during his trial that he had made “mistakes” but denied ever trying to defraud anyone.
Source: AFP