NOS News•today, 4:59 PM
The court in New York has sentenced Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and owner of the fallen crypto exchange FTX, to 25 years in prison for fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. A jury decided in November that he was guilty.
Prosecutors had asked for 40 to 50 years in prison. Prosecutors say it is “one of the largest financial frauds in American history.”
‘He lied’
FTX was a platform where users could open a crypto account and trade cryptocurrencies. Sam Bankman-Fried (32) committed large-scale fraud with the funds of customers who invested money in cryptos at his FTX exchange. He often did not use the funds for cryptos, but ‘lent’ them to his own investment fund Alameda Research for other risky investments.
From 32 billion to 0 in a few days: that’s how FTX went bankrupt
The judge said today, among other things, that Bankman-Fried lied during the trial when he said he did not know that his investment fund used money from FTX customers. According to prosecutors, he also spent clients’ money on all kinds of extravagant things, such as luxury homes on Caribbean islands and private flights.
Bankrupt
The company ran into problems in 2022 when crypto prices plummeted and customers wanted to withdraw their money en masse, money that was no longer there. The crypto exchange FTX collapsed.
Thousands of victims saw their crypto investments go up in smoke. FTX was soon declared bankrupt. According to the judge, FTX customers lost about $8 billion and investors and creditors of FTX and Alameda lost about $3 billion. Bankman-Fried has previously announced that it will appeal against the verdict.
