2024-03-31 19:32:24
A US court today sentenced the founder and former head of the failed FTX cryptocurrency exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried, to 25 years in prison, agencies said. Last November, a jury found the thirty-two-year-old Bankman-Fried guilty of embezzlement, which the authorities described as one of the largest frauds in American history.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Bankman-Fried defrauded clients, investors and creditors of more than ten billion dollars (roughly 234 billion crowns), the AP agency wrote. The prosecutor’s office proposed a sentence of 40 to 50 years in prison for the founder of FTX, while his defense attorneys called for an adequate sentence of up to six and a half years in prison.
Bankman-Fried illegally used FTX clients’ money for his own purposes, including the purchase of luxury properties in the Caribbean, according to prosecutors. “The defendant victimized tens of thousands of people and companies on several continents over the years. He stole money entrusted to him by clients. He lied to investors, sent forged documents to creditors, pumped millions of dollars in illegal donations into our political system, and bribed foreign officials. Each of these crimes deserve a long sentence,” the AP quoted the prosecutor’s office as saying.
Before its collapse, FTX was the second largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world and the gateway to the digital asset market for millions of people. The firm filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors in November 2022. Earlier this year, it announced it had abandoned efforts to resume operations of its cryptocurrency exchange. Instead, it decided to focus on liquidating its assets and returning funds to customers.