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With billions in losses for investors, failed crypto exchange FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty by a jury in New York on Thursday and the judge handed him a 25-year sentence in US federal prison.<\/p>\n
The fraudster plans to appeal his sentence maintaining his innocence. Many people believed that the scale of the fraud demanded a sentence as high as 50 years. Prosecutors called his crime one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history.<\/p>\n
In determining the sentence Judge Lewis Kaplan said that he weighted the brazenness of the defendant\u2019s actions, his lack of remorse and the possibility he\u2019d commit future crimes.<\/p>\n
He also ordered him to repay $11 bln to customers and investors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a risk that this man will be in a position to do something very bad in the future. And it\u2019s not a trivial risk at all,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors pointed out that the defendant used other people\u2019s money to fund his lavish lifestyle, make risky investments and pursue his political agenda.<\/p>\n
Bankman-Fried\u2019s meteoric rise to fame and fortune with his crypto currency exchange and his subsequent fallout underscores the importance of regulation in the U.S. and the E.U.<\/p>\n
Cryptos can be used in illegal transactions such as arms purchases, drug trafficking and virtually every major crime in the world.<\/p>\n
As an asset class, it now stands well above two trillion U.S. dollars and few investors can ignore it. Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway is one of them.<\/p>\n
In December 2022 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Samuel Bankman-Fried \u201cwith orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors\u201d in FTX Trading Ltd. (FTX), the crypto trading platform of which he was the CEO and co-founder.<\/p>\n
Investigations as to other securities law violations and into other entities and persons relating to the alleged misconduct are ongoing.<\/p>\n
According to the SEC\u2019s complaint, since at least May 2019, FTX, based in the Bahamas, raised more than $1.8 billion from equity investors, including approximately $1.1 billion from 90 U.S.-based investors.<\/p>\n
In his representations to investors, Bankman-Fried promoted FTX as a safe, responsible crypto asset trading platform, specifically touting FTX\u2019s sophisticated, automated risk measures to protect customer assets.<\/p>\n
The complaint alleges that, in reality, Bankman-Fried orchestrated a years-long fraud to conceal from FTX\u2019s investors: (1) the undisclosed diversion of FTX customers\u2019 funds to Alameda Research LLC, his privately-held crypto hedge fund; (2) the undisclosed special treatment afforded to Alameda on the FTX platform, including providing Alameda with a virtually unlimited \u201cline of credit\u201d funded by the platform\u2019s customers and exempting Alameda from certain key FTX risk mitigation measures; and (3) undisclosed risk stemming from FTX\u2019s exposure to Alameda\u2019s significant holdings of overvalued, illiquid assets such as FTX-affiliated tokens.<\/p>\n
The complaint further alleges that Bankman-Fried used commingled FTX customers\u2019 funds at Alameda to make undisclosed venture investments, lavish real estate purchases, and large political donations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty by a jury in New York and sentenced to 25 years in US federal prison for orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX Trading Ltd. He was also ordered to repay billion to customers and investors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1972,3503,4002,311,21,3635,80,4288,4284,3832,3471,3496,181,1146,1059,4285,2110,4081,658,1342,3752,3404,3441,1394,34,2628,393,131,287,4054,4286,2920,2127,3023,380,4287,483,18],"class_list":["post-6206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-appeal","tag-arms","tag-boy","tag-columnists","tag-crime","tag-crimes","tag-crypto","tag-crypto-exchange","tag-crypto-fraud","tag-currency","tag-customers","tag-defendant","tag-donations","tag-financial-fraud","tag-fraud","tag-ftx-collapse","tag-funds","tag-future","tag-history","tag-investigations","tag-investments","tag-investors","tag-judgment","tag-man","tag-markets","tag-money","tag-new-york","tag-prison","tag-real-estate","tag-risk","tag-sam-bankman-fried","tag-sentence","tag-special-treatment","tag-trafficking","tag-us","tag-us-sec","tag-violations","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n