SBF live updates: FTX founder sentenced to 25 years in prison for massive crypto fraud

Following his conviction in November, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has officially been sentenced to 25 years in prison Thursday. The former cryptocurrency wunderkind was found guilty of seven counts of fraud for the downfall of the digital asset exchange he founded.

At one point, both Bankman-Fried and FTX were pillars of the cryptocurrency industry. However, today’s news marks the final ruling of his downfall that first began with his arrest in the Bahamas in December of 2022. The sentencing hearing was held in Manhattan, with Judge Lewis Kaplan continuing to preside over the case.

Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison

The collapse of FTX will likely remain one of the biggest controversies in the history of the digital asset sector. Moreover, the criminal activity of the company represented some of the largest financial crimes in the history of the United States. Subseuqnlety, the firm’s CEO and founder has rightly become the face of those illegal acts.

Now, more than 450 days after being apprehended, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. The hearing took place today under the same judge who presided over Bankman-Fried’s criminal case. The outcome had been the subject of debate between both sides leading up to the hearing.

The prosecution had requested Bankman-Fried serve between 40 and 50 years in Prison. Alternatively, SBF’s legal council requested a prison sentence for the 32-year-old former executive that ranged between 64 and 78 months. As you can see, the latter has one out following Kaplan’s decision today, with a sentence term shorter than many assumed.

Bankman-Fried was convicted by a jury on seven counts of fraud in 2023. Specifically, those charges include his thievery of customer assets when running the cryptocurrency exchange, and his deceit with the firm’s investors and creditors. Altogether, Bankman-Fried was responsible for around $8 billion in customer assets being stolen.

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