Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison

Former FTX head Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has been sentenced to 25 years in prison by the Southern District of New York court.

Judge Kaplan: It is the judgment of the court that you are sentenced to 240 months then consecutive 60 [etc] for a total of 300 months [25 years]

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) March 28, 2024

Earlier, prosecutor Damian Williams had advocated for a sentence of 40 to 50 years for SBF. He noted that Bankman-Fried refuses to acknowledge his role in organizing what he described as “probably the largest fraud of the last decade.”

“The scale, duration, nature, and sheer number of SBF’s crimes, the harm caused, the willful disregard for the rule of law, and the absence of mitigating factors make him uniquely deserving of a sentence that is sufficiently severe to ensure justice for his crimes and deter others from similar conduct,” stated the prosecution’s document.

During the March 28 hearing, Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected the defense’s request to consider potential compensation payments to victims as a mitigating factor.

The sentence was handed down shortly after Bankman-Fried expressed “regret at every stage” of the events.

“There is a risk that this person could do something bad in the future. And it is not a trivial risk,” emphasized Kaplan.

Before announcing the sentence, the judge noted that SBF is strong in marketing and possesses exceptional intellectual abilities.

The court also ordered Bankman-Fried to pay a fine of $11 billion.

Variant Fund’s chief legal officer Jake Chervinsky highlighted that Bankman-Fried’s sentence is much lighter than that of Ross Ulbricht, who received two life sentences for running the Silk Road darknet marketplace.

“This is not justice,” he wrote in an X-post.

Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter added the following:

“I just feel immense pain and sympathy for Ross Ulbricht.”

Representatives of the Kraken exchange emphasized that the industry must learn lessons from such events as it evolves.

“Sam Bankman-Fried built his empire on false promises and stolen client funds. Now SBF faces the consequences, but it does not negate the enormous harm he caused to millions of people and the crypto industry,” stated the company.

Back in late February, SBF’s lawyer Mark Mukasey requested a sentence of 63 to 78 months in prison for his client. The attorney described the proposed life sentence as “grotesque.”

The court received 29 letters in support of Bankman-Fried asking for leniency in his future sentence, including from his family members and cellmate.