Sam Bankman-Fried jailed for 25 years

A Manhattan judge on Thursday sentenced

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison and branded him an unapologetic liar obsessed with political power, the New York Post reported. The verdict comes five months after he was found guilty of stealing more than $8 billion from customers of his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

Judge Lewis Kaplan said in a packed federal courtroom in Manhattan that the 32-year-old former billionaire owner of the popular FTX trading platform "presents himself as a good guy who supports proper regulation of the cryptocurrency industry," but his friendly image is a "façade."

"He did this because he wanted to be an extremely influential figure in this country," Judge Kaplan said, before telling the fallen tycoon he "clearly lacked any real remorse."

Bankman-Fried was also ordered to repay more than $11 billion to FTX users, investors and lenders, but as of Thursday it was unclear how much of that amount he would be able to pay.

The judge handed down the sentence after the disgraced tech genius delivered a rambling 20-minute self-reproach to the court. The sentence was less than a quarter of the 110-year maximum sentence Bankman-Fried faced and well below the 40 to 50 years recommended by prosecutors.#LUNC✅ #SHIB #writw2earnn #HotTrends #DOGE $BTC $ETH $SOL