{"id":11188,"date":"2024-02-29T17:20:02","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T15:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/family-of-sam-bankman-fried-appeals-for-leniency-in-court\/"},"modified":"2024-02-29T17:20:02","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T15:20:02","slug":"family-of-sam-bankman-fried-appeals-for-leniency-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/family-of-sam-bankman-fried-appeals-for-leniency-in-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of Sam Bankman-Fried Appeals for Leniency in Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

The court has received 29 letters in support of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), urging leniency in his upcoming sentencing. These include letters from his family members and a cellmate, as reported by Business Insider<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI genuinely fear for Sam\u2019s life in a typical prison environment. His appearance and inability to read or adequately respond to many social cues, along with his touching but naive belief in the power of facts and reason to resolve disputes, put him in extreme danger,\u201d wrote the defendant\u2019s mother, Barbara Fried.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Appeals also came from the former FTX head\u2019s father, Joseph Bankman, brother Gabriel Bankman-Fried, and associates of the former CEO. It was previously reported that SBF\u2019s lawyer, Mark Mukasey, requested a sentence ranging from 63 to 78 months for his client.<\/p>\n

A Unique Mind<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Joseph Bankman warned that his son\u2019s \u201cpeculiar\u201d social cues, which lawyers argue should be attributed to \u201cneurodivergence,\u201d could be misinterpreted by other inmates as \u201cdisrespect or deceit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cSam is only 32 years old, with his whole future ahead of him, but now he faces the prospect of spending much of his remaining life in prison. There is a very real possibility that his father and I will not live to see his release. There are no words to describe our grief,\u201d added Barbara Fried. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

According to SBF\u2019s mother, her eldest son has been wrongly portrayed as a \u201ccartoon villain driven by greed\u201d who committed the \u201cfraud of the century.\u201d In reality, Bankman-Fried dedicated his life to altruism, dropped everything to help friends experiencing family tragedies, and \u201cconstantly battled depression,\u201d she clarified. <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe knew about his condition, but our son described something deeper and sadder: he has never felt happiness or pleasure in his life and doesn\u2019t think he is capable of feeling it,\u201d the letter states.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In SBF\u2019s personal notes, he reflected on his \u201cunattractiveness\u201d and quoted rapper Macklemore:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI don\u2019t feel pleasure. I don\u2019t feel happiness. Somehow my reward system never kicked in. My most significant achievements, moments of my pride come and go, but I feel nothing but a nagging hole in my brain where happiness should be.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Barbara Fried emphasized that her son is a \u201cmultifaceted person\u201d with autism, who feels uncomfortable with close interactions and physical contact. She expressed hope that perhaps some of the inmates \u201cwill appreciate Sam when they get to know him better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neighbourly Support <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Bankman-Fried\u2019s cellmate, Carmine Simpson\u2014a former police officer convicted of distributing child pornography\u2014spoke in his support. He stated that his cellmate has already faced attacks and extortion. <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIn any setting, Sam is the least physically intimidating person, and this is especially noticeable in prison. This situation has led to him often becoming the target of bullying, harassment, and attacks more than the average inmate,\u201d wrote Simpson. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He also spoke about SBF\u2019s commitment to veganism. According to him, the former CEO of the collapsed exchange eats \u201cundercooked rice, a spoonful of disgusting-looking beans, and week-old salad.\u201d <\/p>\n

Additionally, Bankman-Fried told Simpson that he started his business for \u201ccharity\u201d and \u201chelping those in need.\u201d Initially, the cellmate did not believe in his sincerity, but later realized his \u201cselflessness.\u201d <\/p>\n

Younger brother Gabriel Bankman-Fried wrote to the court that SBF\u2019s approach to veganism illustrates both his \u201cselflessness and awkwardness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cHe wouldn\u2019t chat about your dog, but in prison, he lives on bread and water to avoid eating animals. He never knew how to apologize, but he always quickly admitted his guilt. He was uncomfortable hugging me, but I know he would give a kidney if I needed it,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On November 2, 2023, SBF was found guilty on seven counts of money laundering, fraud, and conspiracy. He faces a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for March 28.<\/p>\n

The FTX founder has been in Brooklyn jail for nearly four months. According to WSJ, he shared a cell with former Honduran President Juan Hernandez and gave guards advice on cryptocurrency investments.<\/p>\n

In December, blogger Tiffany Fong interviewed former mobster Gene Borrello, who was incarcerated with Bankman-Fried. He reported that initially, SBF was \u201cout of his element\u201d and was a target for attacks due to his timid nature and \u201cbody of an 80-year-old man.\u201d<\/p>\n

In September, the new leadership of FTX filed a lawsuit against Bankman-Fried\u2019s parents to recover misappropriated funds and assets worth \u201cmillions of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The court has received 29 letters in support of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), urging leniency in his upcoming sentencing. These include letters from his family members and a cellmate, as reported by Business Insider. \u201cI genuinely fear for Sam\u2019s life in a typical prison environment. His appearance and inability to read or adequately respond […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1236,1150,1403],"class_list":["post-11188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-ftx","tag-news-plus","tag-sam-bankman-fried"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"32","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}