DIGIVESTASI - Sam Bankman Fried (aka SBF), the founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, who was charged with stealing billions of dollars in customer deposits, was sentenced on Thursday (28/3/2024) to 25 years in prison. the incredible story that changed his fate came to an end. It's a story that upends the status quo in the cryptocurrency industry and warns against greed and arrogance. Bankman Fried was charged with stealing $8 billion (Rs 125 trillion) from FTX customers, which caused the company to go bankrupt. 

Bankman Fried's sentence is shorter than the 40 to 50 years that federal prosecutors had sought after a jury found him guilty of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. These charges carry a maximum sentence of 110 years in prison. But the sentence is still longer than the six and a half years in prison SBF's lawyers had demanded. 

Sam Bankman Freed, 32, appeared unresponsive as Judge Louis A. Judge. Mr. Kaplan announced the sentence at the US District Court in Manhattan. His parents, Stanford law professors Joe Bankman and Barbara Freed, sat two rows in front of him, staring at the floor.

"He knew it was wrong. He knew it was a crime," Judge Kaplan said of Bankman Freed. 
Before the verdict was announced, SBF, clean-shaven and wearing a baggy brown prison uniform, apologized to FTX customers, investors, and employees.  "A lot of people are very disappointed, very disappointed," he said, according to The New York Times. "I apologize for that. I apologize for what happened every step of the way," he said, adding that his decision "haunts me" every day. 

Sam Bankman Freed was also ordered to return assets worth around $11 billion (Rs 173 trillion). 
SBF, who is currently being held at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center, will likely be sent to a low- or medium-security prison near his parents' home in the San Francisco Bay Area, the judge said. The verdict marks the end of a major fraud case that exposed rampant volatility and risk-taking in the highly regulated world of cryptocurrencies. 

In November 2022, FTX collapsed almost overnight, wiping out $8 billion in customer deposits. At his trial last fall, he was found guilty on seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering.  

SBF's sentence is one of the longest sentences handed down to a white-collar defendant in recent years. Bernie Madoff, who masterminded the infamous pyramid scheme that came to light during the 2008 financial crisis, was sentenced to 150 years in prison in 2009. He was in his 70s and died 12 years later. Elizabeth Holmes, who was found guilty of defrauding investors in blood-testing startup Theranos, was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison in 2022.
 

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