Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of bankrupt crypto exchange firm FTX, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. Sam is accused of crypto fraud, stealing customers’ money and misleading investors. Bankman-Fried’s three friends are also guilty in this case. “He made selfish decisions that haunt him every day,” Bankman-Fried said after the sentencing. In the case, Sam was arrested from Bahamas in December-2022. After this he was extradited to America. The bankman was found guilty of defrauding investors and customers of more than 8 billion dollars i.e. about 832 billion rupees in November 2023. This case was considered one of the biggest scandals in American history. There was a huge fall in the US stock market after Bankman-Fried was convicted. At one time FTX was the second largest crypto exchange firm in the world. Sam was sentenced in the Manhattan District Court of America, ordered to confiscate more than $11 billion. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan imposed the sentence, emphasizing concerns about the potential for Bankman-Fried to engage in further wrongdoing in the future. The judge ordered the forfeiture of more than $11 billion of Bankman-Fried’s money and recommended that she be held in a medium-security prison in the San Francisco area. Prosecutors sought a sentence of 40 to 50 years Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 40 to 50 years, citing Bankman-Fried’s financial crimes, which affected numerous people and institutions around the world. It caused losses of more than $10 billion. These crimes include misappropriation of funds, defrauding investors, falsification of documents, illegal political contributions and bribing foreign officials. What is the whole matter? FTX was the second largest affiliated crypto trading company in the world. FTX Trading Limited has gone bankrupt due to liquidity crunch due to financial irregularities. According to a report by news agency Reuters, Sam Bankman-Fried had secretly transferred customer funds worth $10 billion from FTX to its trading arm Alameda Research. Alameda used this fund for trading. When the firm suffered huge losses in trading, crypto publication CoinDesk published a report on a leaked balance sheet. After this report came out, turmoil started in FTX. FTX received an estimated $6 billion worth of withdrawal requests in three days. FTX was in a liquidity crunch due to the sudden influx of withdrawal requests, meaning it was not in a position to process the withdrawal requests. After this he filed a request for bankruptcy. Bankman-Fried’s net worth went to zero. After the FTX irregularities came to light, Fried’s $16 billion wealth became zero in just a few days. At one time Sam Bankman’s net worth had reached $26 billion. The decline in net worth is due to the bankruptcy of FTX Trading Limited following the liquidity crunch. Who is Sam Bankman-Fried? Bankman-Fried was once one of the biggest names in the crypto industry. Massachusetts Institute of Technology-educated Bankman-Fried founded crypto exchange startup FTX in 2019. Within no time this startup became the world’s second largest crypto exchange platform. However, within 2 years he was accused of a scam, which was later considered one of the biggest scams in American history. “A lot of people feel really disappointed, I’m sorry about that,” Bankman-Fried, 32, said at the sentencing. I’m sorry for what happened every step of the way. There are some things that I should have done and some that I should not have done. “We are heartbroken and will continue to fight for our son,” Bankman-Fried’s family said in a statement. Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, both Stanford law professors, were in court for the sentencing hearing.
