By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Sam Bankman-Fried, the previous billionaire cryptocurrency wunderkind, is about to be sentenced on Thursday over his conviction for stealing $8 billion from prospects of the now-bankrupt FTX alternate he based.
Bankman-Fried, 32, faces the prospect of a long time behind bars after a jury discovered him responsible in November on seven fraud and conspiracy counts. His sentencing is because of begin at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT) earlier than U.S. District Decide Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan.
The listening to will mark the end result of Bankman-Fried’s downfall from an ultra-wealthy cryptocurrency entrepreneur and main political donor to U.S. authorities’ largest trophy so far in a crackdown on malfeasance in digital asset markets.
He faces a statutory most of 110 years, however will possible obtain much less. Prosecutors are in search of a jail sentence of 40 to 50 years for what they are saying was one of many largest monetary frauds in U.S. historical past.
“His life lately has been considered one of unmatched greed and hubris; of ambition and rationalization; and courting danger and playing repeatedly with different folks’s cash,” the U.S. Lawyer’s workplace in Manhattan, which charged Bankman-Fried in December 2022, wrote in a March 15 sentencing memorandum.
Bankman-Fried’s protection lawyer Marc Mukasey urged Kaplan to offer him far much less time, arguing {that a} sentence of lower than 5-1/4 years can be acceptable.
Mukasey stated FTX prospects would possible be made complete within the chapter course of, and that Bankman-Fried labored diligently after the alternate’s November 2022 collapse to get better funds.
“The memorandum distorts actuality to assist its valuable ‘loss’ narrative and casts Sam as a wicked super-villain,” Mukasey wrote in a March 19 court docket submitting, referring to prosecutors’ sentencing proposal.
A number of FTX prospects have written to Kaplan expressing dismay that they are going to be compensated primarily based on the worth of their cryptocurrency on the time of FTX’s chapter, slightly than the upper ranges at which these property commerce immediately.
Bankman-Fried has vowed to enchantment his conviction and sentence.
‘PROMISE OF FALSE HOPE’
A Massachusetts Institute of Know-how graduate, Bankman-Fried rode a growth within the values of bitcoin and different digital property to a web value of $26 billion, in response to Forbes journal, earlier than he turned 30.
Bankman-Fried turned identified for his mop of unkempt curly hair and dedication to a motion generally known as efficient altruism, which inspires proficient younger folks to concentrate on incomes cash and giving it away to worthy causes.
He was one of many largest contributors to Democratic candidates and causes forward of the 2022 U.S. midterm elections.
However prosecutors say the accountable picture he cultivated hid his years-long embezzlement of buyer funds.
At trial, three of his former shut associates testified that he directed them to make use of FTX buyer funds to plug losses at his crypto-focused hedge fund, Alameda Analysis.
Bankman-Fried testified in his personal protection that he made errors equivalent to not implementing a danger administration staff, however denied he supposed to defraud anybody or steal prospects’ cash.
Of their sentencing memorandum, prosecutors stated Bankman-Fried might commit fraud once more if launched at a younger age.
They pointed to his private writings within the weeks following FTX’s collapse, wherein he mused about choices for restoring his picture equivalent to “come out in opposition to the woke agenda” or pushing the concept that “SBF died for our sins.”
“It’s reasonable that he’ll choose a story, lean into it, and persuade different folks to half with their cash primarily based on lies and the promise of false hope,” prosecutors wrote.
