The co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange Futures Exchange or FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for orchestrating what the United States authorities said was one of the largest financial frauds in history.
Bankman-Fried or SBF as he is known faced a maximum sentence of 110 years in prison. In pre-sentencing negotiations, the 32-year-old Bankman-Fried had sought a sentence of 5 1/4 to 6 1/2 years. He also maintains his innocence and plans to appeal the sentence.
On top of the 25 years in prison, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay US$11 billion in forfeiture.
The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, said Bankman-Fried stole over US$8 billion of FTX customers' money.
“His deliberate and ongoing lies demonstrated a brazen disregard for customers’ expectations and disrespect for the rule of law, all so that he could secretly use his customers’ money to expand his own power and influence," Williams said.
"The scale of his crimes is measured not just by the amount of money that was stolen, but by the extraordinary harm caused to victims, who in some cases had their life savings wiped out overnight," Williams added.
FTX was set up in 2019 by Bankman-Fried, and Gary Wang, a computer programmer.
Wang and the former chief executive of Bankman-Fried founded cryptocurrency trading fund Alameda Research, Caroline Ellison, pleaded guilty in 2022 for their roles in the FTX fraud, as part of a deal with US authorities.
Bankman-Fried is said to have channelled billions of dollars of customer deposits at FTX to Alameda, and then used the money for political contributions and buying property and other expenditure for himself.
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"You can't express remorse for the damages caused and then turn around and argue that your sentence is too harsh because nobody was damaged."
Not only do his parents share the blame they directly profited from the billions lost as well. But to see his mom trot out the "wont someone think of the poor children" line in regards to the response to the sentencing along with this:
Bankman-Fried's sentencing submission was accompanied by letters of support from his parents and others. His mother, Barbara Fried, wrote that "Sam is the first person we would call if we needed an angel of mercy in a pinch," and that he "lived an exemplary life in every way prior to the events that brought FTX down."
FTX's new leadership sued Bankman-Fried's parents in September 2023, alleging that they "exploited their access and influence within the FTX enterprise to enrich themselves" at the expense of FTX customers. Fried and Joseph Bankman were deeded "a $16.4 million luxury residence in The Bahamas" and received a $10 million gift consisting of funds from FTX sister firm Alameda, the lawsuit said.
The parents are culpable and directly profited from the crime. To this day they breach any shred of ethics they have to benefit from the crime by not forfeiting the stolen proceeds or even admitting the "angel of mercy in a pinch" benefits they received were stolen proceeds. The fruit does not fall far from the tree.
But then the US is not alone in folks like that. In NZ we have a whole host of parents encouraging, profiting from and endorsing criminal acts then acting as if their children could do no wrong even after they have been convicted of serious crimes and trying to minimize sentencing to the lowest levels. Even if those crimes involve severe physical damage to other family members and still pose a threat to many. It is an ethical and moral blind spot that those without any shred of honesty and decency refuse to address.
Ironically good governance is to address the fact that it is assumed everyone is susceptible to ethical blind spots, corruption and scams. That the maximum sentence and restitution will never occur in cases of theft or abuse.
Never trust any crypto exchange. Especially those in NZ as they don't even have minimal security and basic governance in their chains.
This is the most illuminating I've read today:
There’s something deeply unsettling about SBF’s parents. Frightening, even.
You get the feeling that, as cliched as it might be, these are people who hold themselves as members of a higher caste, to whom the rules and mores governing the proletariat simply do not apply. People who earnestly believe that their academic credentials convey intellectual power, which implies moral superiority, which endows cultural authority and which should translate to political privilege.
People like this view themselves as transcendent figures. They are the cognitive Brahmins of the world, whose machinations are beyond the comprehension of those of us outside the cognitive elite. The rest of us are simply the untouchables on the sides of the roads winding toward their ivory towers. We are not to question their ends, nor the means by which they pursue them.
It’s why Sam’s mother writes at length about his adoption of utilitarianism as something that should be a mitigating factor in his sentence, rather than exploring whether it played a role in her son’s felonious behavior. It’s why she alludes to young Sam’s consumption of literature from “well-known academic philosopher” Derik Parfit but doesn’t speak of the harm adult Sam did to his victims.
Reading the letter, it becomes apparent that Sam deserves credit for adopting a vegan diet that spares the lives of animals, but Sam does not bear guilt—or need to atone—for ruining the lives of actual humans. Because the humans he harmed simply aren’t as worthy as the likes of the Bankmans, the Frieds, or the guests attending their academic dinner parties.
The more I see of these people, the less I believe that SBF was simply a hapless nerd who got caught up in poor business decisions and the more I view him as a lifelong sociopath, raised from birth to believe that high SAT scores and prestigious diplomas grant immunity from consequences in life. And the angrier I become. This is why people say they would rather be governed by random people in the phonebook than by members of Ivy League faculties.
25 years in prison isn’t enough for this guy.
https://twitter.com/RobertMSterling/status/1773469808194998780
This is an absolute joke. Ross Ulbricht is serving a double life sentence + 40 years for making a website that gave people the freedom of choice, and this dude gets a slap on the wrist for defrauding millions of people of billions of dollars.
Clearly he didn't buy any politicians unlike SBF. While conveniently the charges relating to the political donations got swept under the rug...
Corrupt bullshit of a "justice" system.
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