FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years on Thursday after he was convicted of defrauding the company’s customers.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered the crypto billionaire to more than two decades in prison after Bankman-Fried’s lawyers recommended a sentence of five to seven years, according to Axios. Prosecutors sought a sentence of 40 to 50 years.
The disgraced entrepreneur and political donor was convicted by a jury in November of seven fraud and conspiracy counts in what prosecutors described as one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history.
Kaplan cited Bankman-Fried’s “apparent lack of any remorse” before he handed down the sentence.
"He knew it was wrong," Kaplan said, rejecting SBF’s claims that FTX customers did not actually lose any money. "He knew it was criminal. He regrets that he made a very bad bet about the likelihood of getting caught. But he is not going to admit a thing, as is his right."
Kaplan said he found that FTX customers lost $8 billion, FTX’s equity investors lost $1.7 billion and lenders to the Alameda Research hedge fund that Bankman-Fried also founded had lost $1.3 billion, according to USA Today.
"The defendant's assertion that FTX customers and creditors will be paid in full is misleading, it is logically flawed, it is speculative," Kaplan said. "A thief who takes his loot to Las Vegas and successfully bets the stolen money is not entitled to a discount on the sentence by using his Las Vegas winnings to pay back what he stole."
