Prosecutors: Freeze SBF for up to 50 years
U.S. prosecutors have asked a court to imprison former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried for up to 50 years, according to a memo filed Friday.
Bankman-Fried, who is scheduled to be sentenced March 28, faces 40 to 50 years in prison, according to a memo signed by Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
“All the advantages of a comfortable upbringing, an MIT education, an honorable start in finance, and a valuable idea for a startup company allowed Bankman-Fried to pursue the rewarding, productive, and altruistic life she sketched out for herself,” the prosecutor said. Commenting on the sentence, he said: “But his life of late has been one of unrivaled greed and arrogance, ambition and rationalization, risk-seeking and repeated gambling with other people’s money. And even now, Bankman-Fried says, he refuses to admit that what he did was wrong.”
Bankman-Fried’s lawyers had requested a prison sentence of 63 to 78 months for the former executive, according to a February court filing. Last month Bankman-Fried’s family sent a letter to the court stating: concern They heard that their son was in prison.
Bankman-Fried was found guilty by a New York jury last November on all seven criminal counts for defrauding FTX’s customers, lenders and investors.
Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried orchestrated “the largest fraud of the past decade.” The former CEO understood the rules but decided they did not apply to him, prosecutors said in the memo.
“The scope, duration, nature and sheer number of Bankman-Fried’s crimes, the harm caused, his willful disregard for the rule of law, and the absence of countervailing mitigating circumstances make him entitled to an exceptionally sufficient sentence and justice for the defendant’s crimes. It is stringent in order to provide and dissuade others from committing similar crimes and does not allow the defendant to commit the crime again.He can return to freedom only after society can be sure that he will not have the opportunity to return to fraud and deception,” they said in the memo.
FTX’s lawyer said the victim at last In the memo, the prosecution claimed that no one has yet received compensation.
“The defendant’s claim is based on the following speculation. every Victims may one day become whole through bankruptcy. “However, this is far from certain, and defendants have cited no authority for the proposition that the enhancement under section 2B1.1(b)(2) does not apply when victims someday receive compensation,” they wrote.
New beginning?
Prosecutors also told the court that Bankman-Fried may decide to launch a new cryptocurrency exchange and that he had “contemplated” relaunching one called “Archangel LTD”.
Bankman-Fried “focuses on the fact that the Chapter 11 team has no idea how to run FTX” and that it is “run by a cartel of lawyers” and that they are “extremely pro-cryptocurrency, coming out as pro” and their image. I weighed various ways to recover. Other stories like ‘Freedom’, ‘Tucker Carlson (sic) Comes Out as a Republican’, ‘Let Michael Lewis Interview Me’, ‘Radical Honesty on Twitter’, or ‘SBF Died for Our Sins’ The prosecution cited. One of Bankman-Fried’s Google documents submitted as evidence.
The government’s memo also includes messages Bankman-Fried received from victims, including a single mother who said she lost her life’s savings and another victim who said she fled Ukraine with her family during the war and sent her savings to FTX.
Bankman-Fried ultimately “never admitted to what he had done,” prosecutors said.
“He has lied, obfuscated, pretended to apologize, and tried to minimize his involvement. Through it all, the lack of repentance is troubling,” they said in the note. “In assessing the seriousness of the offence, the court must take seriously the fact that there has been no admission of responsibility by the defendant and that this too requires a very serious sentence.”
Comparison with Madoff
Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried’s sentence should be between 40 and 50 years, in part because his crimes were “serious and long-term” and caused billions of dollars in financial and emotional harm to his victims. said: Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried’s sentence was increased because he did not stop his criminal behavior after his arrest.
Prosecutors also compared this case to that of Bernie Madoff, the ringleader of the Ponzi scheme, who was sentenced to 150 years in prison and died in April 2021 after serving 12 years, emphasizing that they were not asking the court for a life sentence.
The prosecution said, “In this case, like the Madoff case and many other cases, the defendant misappropriated funds from the victims and invested large amounts of money in real estate, stocks of listed companies, and other illiquid assets for his own benefit.” wrote. “While many of those assets are recoverable and can be liquidated to reimburse victims, this is the result of the extensive efforts of the bankruptcy trustee and this prosecution, and such recovery will not affect the proper measurement of victims’ losses for sentencing purposes.”
Updated at 4:40 PM ET to include full details.
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