Jonathan Nwokpor
Sam Bankman-Fried, a US entrepreneur and crypto king, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in defrauding users of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
Justice Lewis Kaplan of a US District Court in lower Manhattan described the defense argument as misleading, logically flawed, and speculative.
Kaplan claimed Bankman-Fried obstructed justice and tampered with witnesses while mounting his defense, which he considered in his sentencing decision.
After a two-hour hearing, Justice Lewis Kaplan stated that Bankman-Fried was aware of the criminal nature of his actions and regretted making a terrible wager on his chances of being discovered.
Bankman-Fried, dressed in a beige jailhouse jumpsuit, apologized, saying he had taken “selfish” judgments while managing FTX and “threw it all away.”
“It haunts me every day,” he admitted in a statement. “There are a lot of mistakes that I made.”
Bankman-Fried, on the other hand, informed the court that when FTX collapsed, it had the means to refund customers.
Prosecutors claim Bankman-Fried stole more than $10 billion (£7.9 billion) from unknowing consumers in “one of the biggest financial frauds” in US history.
Before going bankrupt in 2022, FTX was valued at $32 billion, while SBF built a public image that enticed celebrities, politicians, and business titans.
Prosecutors sought up to 50 years, but Bankman-Fried’s legal team argued for no more than six and a half years.
He was convicted of seven criminal counts in November and has been incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn ever since.
Please don’t forget to “Allow the notification” so you will be the first to get our gist when we publish it.
Drop your comment in the section below, and don’t forget to share the post.
