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Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing $8 billion from customers of the crypto exchange FTX. That Bankman-Fried (32) would face a sentence of decades was already clear when a jury found him guilty on seven charges in November. Theoretically, Bankman-Fried could have received a 110-year sentence.
Bankman-Fried was a Silicon Valley poster boy and the role model for young entrepreneurs,preaching a philisphy of ‘effective altriusm’ where individualwealth is distributed amoung different causes for a greater good.
The cryptocurrency king himself maintained that he was the victim of bad financial advice.
Former co-defendants of Bankman-Fried, including ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, testified at trial against him for reduced sentences in their own cases.
In 2019, the 27-year-old founded FTX, which grew into one of the largest crypto exchanges. At the height of his fame, he was among the richest people in the world, according to Forbes. He donated to charities, even to Joe Biden’s campaign during the 2020 US presidential election.
Things went awry when it was revealed that Alameda Research, a sister company to FTX and also largely run by Bankman-Fried, was leaning heavily on FTT, FTX’s own speculative crypto currency. Bankman-Fried allegedly lent some €10 billion in customer deposits to the sister company. Customers decided to withdraw their funds from FTX after revelations about this. FTX was forced to seek protection from creditors and had to file for bankruptcy.
Judge Lewis Kaplan called Bankman-Fried extraordinarily smart. “And he suffers from autism. He is capable of tremendous accomplishments, but had a way of dealing with people that is unusual and sometimes terrifying.”
Bankman Fried’s lawyer Marc Mukasey said: “Sam was not a ruthless financial killer. His real motivations were misunderstood. He likes video games and veganism and he is compassionate toward animals. And had he had the time, he could have mitigated the damage.”
Bankman-Fried told the court he was pained to see FTX’s customers suffer, telling the court it was “excruciating to watch. Customers don’t deserve that pain”.
Appearing to acknowledge his prison sentence, he observed: “My useful life is probably over.”
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