Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison

Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud related to the downfall of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

Bankman-Fried’s conviction was less than the 40 to 50 years sought by federal prosecutors, but also higher than the six-and-a-half years proposed by his attorneys.

Bankman-Fried faced a maximum sentence of 110 years behind bars.

The Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange he founded filed for bankruptcy in November 2022 after it was revealed that the balance sheet of Alameda Research, the sister trading firm of FTX, contained a significant proportion of illiquid assets, mostly in FTT, the exchange’s native token it created.

The 32-year-old founder of the bankrupt exchange was convicted last November for stealing US$8 billion of customer funds.

Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy.

The FTX case has been compared to some of the largest financial frauds in history, including Bernie Madoff and Enron.

Bankman-Fried is expected to appeal the conviction.