Sam Bankman-Fried, a disgraced crypto entrepreneur, has been sentenced to 25 years in jail for stealing billions of {dollars} from his clients.
He was the CEO of FTX, an organization that instantly went bankrupt in November 2022, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers unable to entry their accounts or withdraw their cash.
Regardless of dealing with a possible 100-year sentence, Bankman-Fried’s legal professionals argued for a shorter time period, claiming a five-year sentence could be extra becoming. Prosecutors, then again, pushed for a 40 to 50-year sentence, citing the necessity to shield the general public and deter future criminals.
Secret again doorways
Throughout the trial, it was revealed that Bankman-Fried’s different firm, Alameda Analysis, had secret again doorways permitting it to entry funds belonging to FTX clients and make dangerous investments with out their consent. The decide criticised Bankman-Fried for mendacity on the witness stand and misleadingly claiming that victims could be totally reimbursed.
The jury in New York took simply five-and-a-half hours to convict him of a number of counts of fraud and conspiracy. FTX confronted a monetary shortfall of $10 billion (£7.9 billion) because of clients’ funds getting used for dangerous cryptocurrency trades.
Bankman-Fried’s crimes have left roughly 80,000 victims, a lot of whom are based mostly within the UK, out of pocket, with some dropping their life financial savings. Prosecutors labelled his actions as one of many largest monetary frauds in US historical past.