Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's legal team called the 100-year sentence recommended by the jury "grotesque" in a court filing on Tuesday.
Bankman-Frid has hired a new team of lawyers, headed by Marc Mukasey, to represent him at his sentencing on March 28 in Manhattan. Mukasey has previously represented former U.S. president Donald Trump and members of the Trump Organizations.
Guilty: Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted of FTX Fraud
A jury of nine women and three men found FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried guilty of seven fraud and conspiracy charges on Thursday in the former crypto mogul’s high-profile criminal case. Although the jury delivered its verdict today, it could be some time before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan determines Bankman-Fried’s sentence. He faces a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison. "We respect the jury’s decision. But we are very disappointed with the result," Bankman-Fried's defense attorney Mark...
Now just days after taking him on as a client, Mukasey and his team have filed a 121-page sentencing memo asking that he face no more than six and a half years in prison.
The 31-year-old former CEO of crypto exchange FTX was found guilty on all seven wire fraud and conspiracy charges on November 2, 2023. They carry a maximum sentence of 110 years.
Feds Still Plan to Charge Sam Bankman-Fried With Campaign Finance Violations
Disgraced crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried will still face seven criminal charges, prosecutors said on Tuesday in a letter to the judge overseeing the case—and a campaign finance charge is not going away. The Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit at the Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney’s Office hit Bankman-Fried with eight charges in December. One of the charges—conspiracy to defraud the United States and violate the campaign finance laws—was dropped in July by the Justice Department. The...
He founded and was ultimately held responsible for the collapse of his crypto empire. At its peak, FTX was valued at more than $32 billion. But when the company filed for bankruptcy on November 11, 2022, it owed $3.1 billion to its 50 largest creditors and at least $5 billion more to its nine million customers and smaller creditors.
Bankman-Fried has been incarcerated at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since last summer. An unnamed person with knowledge of the matter told The New York Times that Bankman-Fried has been sharing crypto market tips with the guards and recommended they invest in Solana.
How Sam Bankman-Fried Ended Up in Jail
The nature of Sam Bankman-Fried’s conduct at the helm of FTX will face intense scrutiny at trial, but his alleged behavior after stepping down is what ultimately earned him a spot at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn in August. A bail agreement meant Bankman-Fried was allowed to prepare his defense against criminal fraud charges under house arrest at his parents' California home. But the sudden change of scenery to a Brooklyn jail came at a crucial time, Kevin O’Brien of Ford O...
Bankman-Fried and his firms, FTX and trading firm Alameda Research, were heavily invested in Solana. At their peak, the ex-CEO and his companies accounted for more than 60 million SOL—which accounted for roughly 10% of the total supply.
In the Tuesday memo, Bankman-Fried's lawyers rebuffed comparisons that have been made between the one-time crypto mogul and American financier Bernie Madoff, who defrauded thousands of investors and netted billions of dollars over decades. In the memo, Bankman-Fried's lawyers argue that because FTX customers are projected to make a full recovery, there are "there will be no actual losses in this case, as Sam had contended was true from the beginning."
Sam Bankman-Fried, Living on Bread and Water in Prison, Pleads Not Guilty
While Sam Bankman-Fried awaits trial in October on fraud and conspiracy charges, the fallen crypto founder is having a rough time in jail, his attorneys told federal Judge Sara Netburn on Tuesday. The revelations came as the disgraced executive pled not guilty to fraud and money laundering—a narrow set of charges by the government filed in December. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers argued that Bankman-Fried is unable to adequately prepare for his trial because of a lack of computer access and being depri...
FTX's bankruptcy estate said in court at the end of January that customers who can prove their losses are expected to be repaid in full. After selling off more of its crypto holdings, the estate has increased its cash reserves to $4.4 billion.
The lawyers also argued in the memo that even as a billionaire, Bankman-Fried did not live a lavish lifestyle.
"Sam has always lived a very modest life. Even as a billionaire, he drove the most basic car that was available. He wore ragged t-shirts and shorts," they wrote. "He cooked most of his own meals, usually frying...vegan meat with sparse vegetables."
