A U.S. court today sentenced Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former head of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, to 25 years in prison, news agencies reported. A jury last November found Bankman-Fried, 32, guilty of embezzlement in what authorities have called one of the biggest frauds in American history.
Tens of billions of dollars worth of fraud
Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried defrauded clients, investors and creditors of more than $10 billion (about CZK 234 billion), AP reported. The prosecution had proposed a sentence of 40 to 50 years in prison for the FTX founder, while his defense attorneys argued that a sentence of up to six and a half years in prison was adequate.
According to prosecutors, Bankman-Fried illegally used FTX clients’ money for his own purposes, including buying luxury real estate in the Caribbean.
FTX has become a deterrent
“Tens of thousands of people and companies from several continents have fallen victim to the defendant over the years. He stole money that clients entrusted to him. He lied to investors, sent forged documents to creditors, pumped millions of dollars in illegal donations into our political system, and bribed foreign officials. Each of these crimes deserves a lengthy sentence,” the AP quoted the prosecutor’s statement as saying.
Before its collapse, FTX was the second largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world and was the gateway to the digital asset market for millions of people. The company filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors in November 2022. Earlier this year, it announced that it had abandoned efforts to relaunch its cryptocurrency exchange. Instead, it decided to focus on liquidating its assets and returning funds to customers.
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