FTX founder sentenced to 25 years for defrauding billions

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried / Photo credit: FTX

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was given a 25-year jail sentence for defrauding US$8 billion from customers in one of the greatest financial fraud cases in the US, a Reuters report noted.

The 32-year-old founder was found guilty on seven fraud and conspiracy counts related to FTX’s shutdown in 2022 in November last year.

Despite claiming innocence, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan noted the founder’s lack of regret, saying Bankman-Fried knew that what he was doing was illegal. “But he is not going to admit a thing, as is his right.”

The judge allowed the government to use confiscated assets to repay victims and slapped the founder with an US$11 billion forfeiture order.

While his lawyers argued for a shorter sentence, prosecutors pressed for a typical 40- to 50-year term.

Once a billionaire, worth an estimated US$26 billion, Bankman-Fried’s criminal conviction marks a major decline in his net worth.

The founder is not the only crypto mogul facing legal action in the US. Changpeng Zhao, the founder of FTX’s then-rival Binance is currently facing a lawsuit from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission for “willful evasion” of law.

In this suit, the government body alleged that Binance and its execs Zhao and chief compliance officer Samuel Lim directed employees to skirt compliance controls.

Their woes might have come at an inopportune time. After a sluggish few years, the crypto scene is currently seeing hints of a comeback – with Bitcoin recently hitting a record high value.

See also: Binance’s dominance grows in FTX’s absence