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Federal prosecutors requested a New York choose on Friday to condemn FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to between 40 and 50 years in jail for cryptocurrency crimes they described as a “historic fraud.”
Prosecutors made the request as they submitted their presentence suggestions to a federal choose who will sentence the person who at one time dazzled the cryptocurrency world together with his promotional abilities, together with his entry to well-known folks prepared to advertise his companies.
Bankman-Fried, 32, is scheduled to be sentenced in Manhattan federal courtroom on March 28 following his November conviction on fraud and conspiracy fees.
Prosecutors say he value prospects and buyers in FTX and its associated firms no less than $10 billion from 2017 via 2022.
He was extradited to the United States in December 2022 from the Bahamas after his firms collapsed a month earlier. Initially permitted to stay at house together with his dad and mom in Palo Alto, California, he was jailed final yr weeks earlier than his trial after Decide Lewis A. Kaplan concluded that he had tried to tamper with trial witnesses.
Of their presentence submission, prosecutors described Bankman-Fried’s crimes as “one of many largest monetary frauds in historical past, and what’s probably the most important fraud within the final decade.”
Seth Wenig / AP
“The defendant victimized tens of hundreds of individuals and corporations, throughout a number of continents, over a interval of a number of years. He stole cash from prospects who entrusted it to him; he lied to buyers; he despatched fabricated paperwork to lenders; he pumped tens of millions of {dollars} in unlawful donations into our political system; and he bribed international officers. Every of those crimes is worthy of a prolonged sentence,” they wrote.
Prosecutors invoke Bankman-Fried’s political donations, bribes
They mentioned his “illegal political donations to over 300 politicians and political motion teams, amounting to in extra of $100 million, is believed to be the largest-ever marketing campaign finance offense.”
And so they mentioned his $150 million in bribes to Chinese language authorities officers was one of many single largest by a person.
“Even following FTX’s chapter and his subsequent arrest, Bankman-Fried shirked accountability, deflected blame to market occasions and different people, tried to tamper with witnesses, and lied repeatedly underneath oath,” prosecutors mentioned, citing his testimony at trial.
FTX’s bankruptcy in November of 2022 forged a cloud over the whole crypto business, because the sudden collapse of different main business gamers vaporized billions in consumer wealth.
“So many individuals believed in him, he was a genius,” Natalie Tien, a former FTX worker, instructed CBS Information final yr.
Tien mentioned attending the trial of her former boss was cathartic after experiencing months of confusion and melancholy when his empire collapsed and he or she too “misplaced some huge cash.”
Bankman-Fried’s attorneys attacked earlier sentence suggestion
Two weeks in the past, Bankman-Fried’s attorneys attacked a probation workplace suggestion that their client serve 100 years in prison, saying a sentence of that size could be “grotesque” and “barbaric.”
They urged the choose to condemn Bankman-Fried to only a few years behind bars after calculating federal sentencing tips to advocate a time period of 5 to six 1/2 years in jail.
They cited their consumer’s medical situations, which embrace autism, in addition to his targets to enhance the world via his now-defunct crypto alternate, according to the Wall Avenue Journal.
“Sam isn’t the ‘evil genius’ depicted within the media or the grasping villain described at trial,” his attorneys wrote. “Sam is a 31-year-old, first-time, nonviolent offender, who was joined within the conduct at situation by no less than 4 different culpable people, in a matter the place victims are poised to get well —had been at all times poised to get well— 100 cents on the greenback.”
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