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Federal prosecutors stated on Friday that Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced cryptocurrency mogul, ought to obtain a jail sentence of 40 to 50 years for his conviction on fraud fees.
The prosecutors outlined the sentencing suggestion in a submitting in U.S. District Court docket in Manhattan. Mr. Bankman-Fried’s sentencing listening to is scheduled for March 28, throughout which Choose Lewis A. Kaplan will resolve his destiny. He faces a most attainable penalty of 110 years.
“Justice requires that he obtain a jail sentence commensurate with the extraordinary dimensions of his crimes,” the prosecutors stated in a 116-page sentencing memo to the decide.
In a separate filing final month, attorneys for Mr. Bankman-Fried, 32, argued that he ought to obtain a sentence of not more than six and a half years.
A spokesman for Mr. Bankman-Fried declined to remark.
Simply 18 months in the past, Mr. Bankman-Fried was a high-flying crypto mogul, presiding over the cryptocurrency trade FTX, a $40 billion enterprise empire. However then FTX collapsed virtually in a single day, placing him within the cross hairs of legislation enforcement.
In November, a federal jury in Manhattan convicted Mr. Bankman-Fried of stealing $8 billion from FTX’s prospects to finance political contributions, investments in different firms and lavish real-estate purchases.
FTX’s implosion and Mr. Bankman-Fried’s subsequent arrest and conviction had been seen as a historic nadir for the loosely regulated crypto world.
“The crypto trade may be new,” Damian Williams, the U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of New York, stated after the decision, “however this type of fraud, this type of corruption, is as outdated as time.”
Since then, the crypto trade seems to have put Mr. Bankman-Fried’s crimes within the rearview mirror. As he prepares for his sentencing, the costs of most digital property have soared, with Bitcoin reaching a report excessive this month.
Mr. Bankman-Fried might face what would quantity to life in jail. Based on courtroom information, a probation officer beneficial a 100-year sentence, simply 10 years lower than the utmost. Within the submitting final month, Mr. Bankman-Fried’s attorneys referred to as that suggestion “barbaric” and “grotesque.”
Marc Mukasey, the lawyer Mr. Bankman-Fried employed to arrange for the sentencing, argued in his authorized submitting {that a} 100-year sentence could be paying homage to the 150 years given to Bernard Madoff, who pleaded responsible in 2009 to working one of many greatest Ponzi schemes in historical past. Any comparisons between the 2 males are inappropriate, Mr. Mukasey stated, given “the length and {dollars}” concerned in Mr. Madoff’s crimes — a 20-year-long fraud that generated $64 billion in paper losses.
Mr. Mukasey additionally identified that it took a court-appointed trustee greater than 15 years to return roughly $14 billion to Mr. Madoff’s traders. In contrast, the chapter attorneys overseeing FTX’s unwinding have recommended that prospects of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s failed trade are more likely to get again all of their cash on a comparatively quick timeline.
Judges are usually not required to comply with federal sentencing pointers. And in imposing a sentence, Choose Kaplan can contemplate a spread of things, together with Mr. Bankman-Fried’s age, the truth that he’s a first-time offender and the potential for him to be rehabilitated.
However one issue that will work in opposition to Mr. Bankman-Fried is that he selected to testify at his trial and seemed evasive at times throughout cross-examination. If Choose Kaplan concludes that Mr. Bankman-Fried testified falsely, he might take that under consideration in deciding the sentence.
