Crypto King Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years for Fraud

Samuel Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison for orchestrating multiple fraudulent schemes costing his clients billions of dollars.

The U.S. Department of Justice reports that Bankman-Fried was sentenced on March 28 to 25 years in prison and three years of supervised release, and he was “ordered to pay $11 billion in forfeiture for his orchestration of multiple fraudulent schemes.” The ruling found that Bankman-Fried “misappropriated billions of dollars of customer funds deposited with FTX, defrauded investors in FTX of more than $1.7 billion, and defrauded lenders to Alameda of more than $1.3 billion.”

Before his sentencing, Bankman-Fried was found guilty of two counts of wire fraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

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— SBF (@SBF_FTX) January 19, 2023

“There are serious consequences for defrauding customers and investors,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, “Anyone who believes they can hide their financial crimes behind wealth and power, or behind a shiny new thing they claim no one else is smart enough to understand, should think twice.”

Attorney Damian Williams, for the Southern District of New York, called Bankman-Fried’s lies a “brazen disregard for customers’ expectations and disrespect for the rule of law.” He said the crimes committed were not only about money but the harm they caused the fraud victims, many of whom had their life savings wiped out.

Bankman-Fried used billions of dollars in customer deposits into FTX to make investments for his own benefit, spend money on real estate, and make political contributions, among other expenditures, the document read.

He also created false financial statements for Alameda’s lenders. Also, Bankman-Fried was said to have inflated FTX’s revenues and profits in numbers provided to investors and backdated contracts and other documents to conceal the ongoing fraud.