On Thursday, cryptocurrency’s one-time golden boy, Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for orchestrating a huge fraud that gutted his FTX empire.
The harsh penalty delivered by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan was a rebuke to the 32-year-old’s “selfish” choices and disregard for the losses inflicted on legions of customers and investors.
Wearing a beige prison jumpsuit, the fallen crypto mogul appeared apologetic as he confronted his fate, saying
“A lot of people feel really let down, and they were very let down, and I am sorry about that. I am sorry about what happened at every stage. And there are things I should’ve done and things I shouldn’t have,” CNN reported .
He added that the consequences of his actions “haunt me every day.” Yet his contrition did little to sway Kaplan, who thought the defense’s arguments to be “misleading, logically flawed and speculative.”
Prosecutors had sought up to 50 years for Bankman-Fried’s “one of the largest frauds in financial history.” In the end, the 25-year sentence landed squarely within the range handed down to other high-profile corporate criminals like Bernie Ebbers and Jeff Skilling.
Just months ago, Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX was a $32 billion behemoth and he was feted as a visionary poised to reshape the future of finance. But it all fell apart last November when a cash crunch exposed how he had pillaged billions from FTX customer funds to bankroll his Alameda Research trading firm and a spendy lifestyle.
At trial, prosecutors characterized Sam Bankman-Fried as a pathological deceiver who preyed on investors and clients through an “old-fashioned fraudulent scheme.” One even thought him to be “abrupt, dismissive, evasive, detached or uncaring.”
