Sam Bankman-Fried Advocates for 63-78 Month Sentencing Benchmark in FTX Fraud Case
Sam Bankman-Fried's lawyer urged a judge on Tuesday to impose a lenient sentence for the FTX founder's conviction for stealing $8 billion (roughly Rs. 6,63,30 crore) from customers of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, arguing clients would get most of their funds back.
In a sentencing submission, Bankman-Fried's lawyer Marc Mukasey told U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan that a guidelines range between 5-1/4 and 6-1/2 years would be an appropriate prison term.
That is far less than the maximum sentence of 110 years he faces after a jury found him guilty in November on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy, in what prosecutors have called one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.
Bankman-Fried, having pleaded not guilty, plans to appeal his conviction and the ensuing sentence. While admitting to errors in managing FTX, he testified during the trial that he had no intention of misappropriating customer funds.
Scheduled for sentencing on March 28 by Kaplan, the former billionaire, who will turn 32 next week, received letters of support from various individuals, including his parents, a psychiatrist, and others.
Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, both Stanford law professors and Bankman-Fried's parents, emphasized that their son was not driven by material wealth. They highlighted his diligent efforts to rectify the situation for customers in the month following FTX's collapse in November 2022, which led to his arrest on fraud charges a month later.
