Sam Bankman-Fried – also known as SBF – has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing billions of dollars from customers of his cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
After a two hour hearing the judge, Lewis Kaplan, said Bankman-Fried knew what he was doing was criminal and regretted making a bad bet about the likelihood of being caught.
“There are a lot of mistakes that I made,” Bankman-Fried told the court, but maintained FTX had the ability to repay customers when it imploded.
The 32-year-old former billionaire was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy charges stemming from his role in the collapse of FTX.
Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried took more than $10bn (£7.9bn) from unsuspecting customers in “one of the biggest financial frauds” in US history.
FTX was valued at $32bn before it went bankrupt in 2022 and SBF crafted a public image that drew in celebrities, politicians and business titans.
BBC
