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Federal prosecutors requested a New York choose on Friday to condemn FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to between 40 and 50 years in jail for cryptocurrency crimes they described as a “historic fraud.”
Prosecutors made the request as they submitted their presentence suggestions to a federal choose who will sentence a person who at one time dazzled the cryptocurrency world together with his promotional expertise, together with his entry to well-known folks keen to advertise his companies.
Bankman-Fried, 32, is scheduled to be sentenced in Manhattan federal courtroom on March 28 for his November conviction on fraud and conspiracy expenses.
Prosecutors say he price prospects and buyers in FTX and its associated firms no less than $10 billion from 2017 by way of 2022.
He was extradited to the US in December 2022 from the Bahamas after his firms collapsed a month earlier. Initially permitted to stay at house together with his dad and mom in Palo Alto, California, he was jailed final yr weeks earlier than his trial after Decide Lewis A. Kaplan concluded that he had tried to tamper with trial witnesses.
Of their presentence submission, prosecutors described Bankman-Fried’s crimes as “one of many largest monetary frauds in historical past, and what’s probably the most important fraud within the final decade,” writing: “The defendant victimized tens of 1000’s of individuals and corporations, throughout a number of continents, over a interval of a number of years. He stole cash from prospects who entrusted it to him; he lied to buyers; he despatched fabricated paperwork to lenders; he pumped thousands and thousands of {dollars} in unlawful donations into our political system; and he bribed international officers. Every of those crimes is worthy of a prolonged sentence.”
They added that his “illegal political donations to over 300 politicians and political motion teams, amounting to in extra of $100 million, is believed to be the largest-ever marketing campaign finance offense.”
They usually stated his $150 million in bribes to Chinese language authorities officers was one of many largest by a person.
“Even following FTX’s chapter and his subsequent arrest, Bankman-Fried shirked duty, deflected blame to market occasions and different people, tried to tamper with witnesses, and lied repeatedly underneath oath,” prosecutors stated, citing his testimony at trial.
Two weeks in the past, Bankman-Fried’s legal professionals attacked a probation workplace suggestion that their consumer serve 100 years in jail, saying a sentence of that size could be “grotesque” and “barbaric.”
They urged the choose to condemn Bankman-Fried to just some years behind bars after calculating federal sentencing tips to suggest a time period of 5 to six.5 years in jail.
“Sam just isn’t the ‘evil genius’ depicted within the media or the grasping villain described at trial,” his legal professionals wrote. “Sam is a 31-year-old, first-time, nonviolent offender, who was joined within the conduct at concern by no less than 4 different culpable people, in a matter the place victims are poised to recuperate—had been all the time poised to recuperate—100 cents on the greenback.”
—By Larry Neumeister, Related Press
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