FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried faces a maximum possible sentence of 110 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines for an enormous fraud conspiracy that brought down his cryptocurrency exchange and an affiliated hedge fund, a judge ruled Thursday.
Judge Lewis Kaplan increased Bankman-Fried’s sentence after finding that he committed perjury in the course of the trial and knowingly obstructed justice.
Kaplan, who will sentence SBF on Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, doesn’t have to present him that much time. But the ruling highlights the chance that Bankman-Fried will spend many years in prison.
The judge also found Thursday that the full loss from the FTX fraud exceeded $550 million. Anything beyond that’s “just gravy,” Kaplan noted, referring to the proven fact that an additional loss wouldn’t increase the upper limit of the guidance.
However, Kaplan said FTX “rejects defendant’s entire no-loss argument,” calling the claim “misleading, logically flawed and speculative.”
After Kaplan issued his ruling on the stricter guidelines, several of Bankman-Fried’s victims began speaking out concerning the impact of his crimes.
Bankman-Fried, who was wearing a beige jail jumpsuit, checked out the victims as they spoke to the judge.
Federal prosecutors want Bankman-Fried sentenced to 40 to 50 years in prison. His defense attorneys asked Kaplan to sentence him to a much lesser sentence, five to 6 and a half years in prison.
Kaplan presided over the trial, which ended in November when a jury found Bankman-Fried, 32, guilty on seven counts and held him accountable for about $10 billion in customer deposits that went missing in 2022.
The charges included wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud against clients of FTX and lenders of sister hedge fund Alameda Research; conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit commodity fraud against FTX investors; and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Bankman-Fried’s parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, are in the courtroom for the sentencing hearing.
Former CEO and founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried’s mother, Barbara Fried (left), and his father, Joseph Bankman, arrive on the Manhattan Federal Court for the announcement of the decision handed down by the Manhattan Federal Court in New York on March 28, 2024 .
Timothy A. Clary | Af | Getty Images
