Today, Thursday March 28, almost two years after the FTX cryptocurrency exchange filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, the world finally learned what punishment its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried will face. During the session, Judge Lewis Kaplan received 1,500 documents, 450 of which were submitted by the defense.
In its testimony, SBF expressed remorse for causing suffering to FTX victims, including financial stress and emotional distress. However, SBF argued that it could have been repaid because FTX customers had sufficient assets.
“I know a lot of people feel really disappointed. They all created something really beautiful and threw themselves into it and I threw it all away. It haunts me every day,” SBF told Judge Kaplan today.
Judge Kaplan’s notes on the case
Tensions ran high on both sides as the judge took into account the fact that SBF had previously brought down the second largest cryptocurrency exchange, which was worth about $35 billion at the time of its collapse. Defense attorney and prosecutor. According to Judge Kaplan, SBF and its lawyers have previously lied under oath, even after losing $8 billion in client funds.
“Defendants’ claims that FTX customers and creditors will be paid in full are misleading, logically flawed, and speculative. “A thief who takes his loot to Las Vegas and bets on the stolen money cannot get a reduction in his sentence by paying back the stolen money with the money he won in Las Vegas,” Kaplan pointed out.
What lies ahead for SBF?
If the judge follows the law as written, SBF faces the statutory maximum sentence of 110 years in prison. Prosecutors have been seeking 40 to 50 years in prison for SBF. But SBF’s lawyers urged the judge to take his good behavior into account and sentence him to less than 6.5 years in prison.
Nonetheless, the judge sentenced the 32-year-old former cryptocurrency leader to 25 years in prison.