Bankman-Fried during 20 minutes of remarks to the judge accepted that FTX customers had suffered and offered an apology to his former FTX colleagues – but did not admit criminal wrongdoing.
Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in jail on 28th March 2024 for stealing $8 billion from customers of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange he founded.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected Bankman-Fried’s claim that FTX customers did not actually lose money and found him guilty that he lied during his trial testimony. A jury found him guilty on Nov. 2 in seven fraud and conspiracy cases in FTX’s 2022 collapse in what prosecutors called it one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history.
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Judge On Sam Bankman-Fried
Judge highlighted that despite knowing he did the wrong thing, he did not admit his crime. “He knew it was wrong,” Kaplan said. Judge added that Bankman knew it was criminal and regretted that he made a very bad bet about the likelihood of getting caught. But he is not going to admit a thing, as is his right.
Sam Bankman-Fried After Announcement Of Verdict
Bankman-Fried during 20 minutes of remarks to the judge accepted that FTX customers had suffered and offered an apology to his former FTX colleagues – but did not admit criminal wrongdoing.
When Kaplan read the sentence, Bankman-Fried stood with his hands clasped before him. He then spoke with his defense lawyer Marc Mukasey briefly and then was led out of the courtroom by members of the U.S. Marshals Service.
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What Is Sam Bankman-Fried’s Fraud?
IN November 2022, When CoinDesk disclosed the details of Alameda’s balance sheet worth rs $14.6 billion in assets, out of which $7 billion were either FTT tokens or coins backed by Bankman-Fried like Solana or Serum, reported News Bytes
After this disclosure investors started withdrawing their holdings from FTX, which led to a liquidity crisis for Alameda and FTX. FTX had filed for bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO of FTX and associated entities.
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Who Is Sam Bankman-Fried?
- Sam Bankman-Fried, The son of two Stanford Law School professors left his Wall Street position and started a cryptocurrency hedge fund in 2017.
- Nearly two years after launching a hedge fund, Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried founded FTX, an exchange that allowed users to buy and sell digital assets such as bitcoin.
- The next two years in his venture saw a sharp increase in the value of cryptocurrencies, taking his net worth to $26 billion before turning 30, as per Forbes magazine.
- A federal court on October 4 in Manhattan opened his trial. In the testimony, three ex-members of his inner circle—who have pleaded guilty and consented to work with the prosecution—described episodes in which he lost his cool around coworkers and implied that his eccentric persona was primarily a front, as per Reuters reports.
(With Inputs From Reuters)
