In an epic downfall that ricocheted through the volatile cryptocurrency world, Sam Bankman-Fried, the former billionaire wunderkind once hailed as the “King of Crypto,” was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison on Thursday for orchestrating a colossal fraud that vaporized over $8 billion.
The startling punishment handed down in a Manhattan courtroom capped the stunning rise and dizzying fall of the 32-year-old Bankman-Fried, whose upstart crypto exchange FTX was supposed to help lead digital assets into the mainstream before its sudden implosion.
Instead, Bankman-Fried will now spend over two decades behind bars for defrauding legions of investors and customers who poured money into what they believed was a pioneering, secure platform for trading bitcoin, ether and other cryptocurrencies.
It was all a mirage. An audacious years-long scheme in which Bankman-Fried siphoned customer deposits to cover high-risk trading bets made by his hedge fund Alameda Research, lavish real estate purchases, illegal political donations, and other unauthorized expenditures.
Delivering the sentence, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan excoriated Bankman-Fried, saying he lied repeatedly on the witness stand about being unaware that FTX customer funds were being misused.
“He knew it was wrong. He knew it was criminal,” Judge Kaplan said sternly, his voice laden with disdain. “He has never uttered a single word of regret for his commission of these crimes.”
The punishment represented a dramatic repudiation of Bankman-Fried’s courtroom claims that his actions, while admittedly flawed, were not driven by criminal intent but merely misguided efforts to sustain FTX amid a crypto market meltdown.
“I made a lot of mistakes, but I tried my best,” Bankman-Fried told the court in a hushed tone before sentencing. He claimed FTX had the asset holdings to eventually make customers whole when it collapsed in November 2022 amid a bank run.
“The reasons and story behind customer suffering have not been properly told,” he insisted, maintaining his signature mop of unkempt hair and t-shirt attire even while facing hard prison time.
Bankman-Fried added that he was “really deeply sorry” to customers, former staffers and others who believed in FTX, his voice seeming to crack with emotion. “It’s been excruciating to watch and it haunts me every day.”
His parents, Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, two elite Stanford University law professors, stuck by their son. “We are heartbroken and will continue to fight for our son,” they said in a message released after the sentencing.
However, prosecutors depicted an entirely different Bankman-Fried – a remorseless, calculating con man who knew exactly what he was doing in pillaging FTX to sustain the profligate spending and risky trading strategies at his Alameda hedge fund.
“The fraud here was astounding – both in its incredible scale and in how rudimentary and careless it was at times,” prosecutor Danielle Sassoon told the court. She described how Bankman-Fried openly treated FTX as his “personal unlimited slush fund.”
While the 25-year sentence was well short of the potential 115-year maximum under advisory guidelines, Judge Kaplan said it was severe enough to deter Bankman-Fried from repeating his “terrible” crimes should he be freed at an advanced age.
“There is a risk…not trivial, not at all trivial, that this man will be in a position to do something very bad in the future,” the judge warned gravely.
Bankman-Fried, who turns 33 this year, must also forfeit $11 billion that prosecutors say can help compensate victims. It’s unclear how much of those funds the government has seized so far.
The sentence was a harsh ending for the man once viewed as crypto’s visionary genius. Bankman-Fried had earned a cult-like following among investors by positioning himself as the moral face of digital currencies through his earnest advocacy for regulation and super-charged trading volumes that pushed FTX to a $32 billion valuation as recently as early 2022.
But Bankman-Fried was exposed as a fraud once investors submitted massive withdrawal requests in November amid rumors of financial turbulence at FTX and its affiliated trading arm Alameda Research. Within days, FTX collapsed into bankruptcy with $8 billion gone.
An array of shocking revelations then tumbled out – testimony detailed how FTX and Alameda had a secret “back door” allowing them to freely transfer customer funds; how accounting and risk-management controls were virtually non-existent; and how Bankman-Fried and ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison used millions in customer money for a Bahamas real estate binge and other lavish personal purchases.
“It’s just taking money from customers and spending it however,” Ellison, who helmed Alameda, testified at Bankman-Fried’s trial, describing FTX as a slipshod “dumpster fire” of an operation.
Legal experts said Bankman-Fried’s 25-year sentence struck an appropriate balance, neither overly draconian nor too light for his crimes that trashed the life savings of countless individuals.
“It is the right balance between how old he is and what is the purpose of deterrence in punishing a massive fraud,” said Jennifer Taub, a law professor and white-collar crime expert at Western New England University.
Samuel Hapak, whose investment firm Wincent represented around 200 FTX creditors, echoed that view, calling it a “fair” ruling that “sends a reasonable signal to the industry that it needs to step up its game.”
Some victims felt otherwise, like Louis Dorigny, a FTX customer from California who said it was a “bittersweet moment” as the sentence offered accountability but no monetary recompense.
“I don’t wish jail time on anybody, and 25 years is a very, very long time to be in prison,” he said. “But it does nothing to compensate the victims for the loss of their cryptocurrency.”
While falling short of a life term, the sentence still ensures that Bankman-Fried will spend the prime middle-aged years of adulthood behind bars.
It mirrors other major financial scandals of the past like Bernie Madoff’s epic $64 billion Ponzi scheme that landed the infamous fraudster a 150-year virtual life sentence.
But Bankman-Fried differed in age – he was just entering his 30s during the fraud versus Madoff’s advanced years. And unlike the notorious Madoff, Bankman-Fried had his defenders who testified about his good character and intentions, however misguided.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyers had pushed for a prison term of just 5 to 6 1/2 years, calling him a non-violent offender who could earn money to pay restitution if given leniency.
“The victims want their money back and they should get it,” Marc Mukasey, a defense lawyer, told Judge Kaplan.
Prosecutors, however, said that was precisely the kind of rhetoric and lack of true remorse that necessitated strict punishment, demanding at least 40 years.
While falling short of that, the 25-year sentence issued a stinging rebuke to Bankman-Fried’s repeated efforts to portray himself as just a well-meaning entrepreneur whose vision got carried away as FTX grew too fast.
At trial, jurors heard how the whiz kid graduate of the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology began misusing FTX customer funds nearly from the get-go after founding the exchange in 2019.
Rather than safeguarding deposits, Bankman-Fried siphoned them to fund Alameda’s aggressive high-risk trades. To cover shortfalls at Alameda, he’d then “borrow” from FTX’s customer coffers, creating a deepening fraud that went undetected for years.
“They built something really beautiful, they threw themselves into it and then I threw it all away,” a contrite Bankman-Fried told the court about FTX staffers, his voice cracking.
As he was led from the courtroom in handcuffs following his sentencing, Bankman-Fried maintained the same meek, pupils-dilated demeanor that defined his trial testimony – a far cry from his formerly brash public persona.
It was a visual coda to the dethroning of the self-proclaimed “King of Crypto.” The ruler whose polished reign over the digital currency kingdom proved as illusory as the crypto assets he peddled.
