DOJ Seeks Five Decades for Bankman-Fried Behind Bars 

On Friday, the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) presented its sentencing suggestions after Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX founder, was found guilty in 2023.

On Friday, prosecutors in the federal fraud case against Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) claimed that the fallen ex-CEO and FTX founded must face 40 to 50 years behind bars, asset relinquishment, and fines amounting to $11B. That is based on a sentencing memo filed by the United States Department of Justice’s Southern District of New York on March 15. 

SBF was found guilty of seven conspiracy and fraud charges in November 2023 after the fall of the famous cryptocurrency exchange in late 2022.

Justice Department Suggests 50 Years for Bankman-Fried

Damian Williams, a U.S. attorney, noted that despite the impossibility of the offender working in finance again and the possibility of losing his illegally-acquired gains, justice needs him to acquire a prison sentence proportionate to his crimes’ astonishing dimensions. As such, the punishments’ real purpose requires 40 to 50 years of incarceration. 

According to prosecutors, SBF and acquaintances stole clients’ funds amounting to billions of dollars from FTX via Alameda Research trading company, the firm’s sister company. Recently, insolvency attorneys claimed they have a strategy to make clients whole after repossessing pilfered investments and assets and selling FTX’s remaining cryptocurrency holdings. 

Williams said that this conduct was deliberate. SBF illustrated a brazen contempt for the rule of law in each aspect of the defendant’s business and relation to every crime executed. Despite understanding the regulations, he opted to disregard them. 

Bankman-Fried Portrayed Delusional Belief

Additionally, Williams said that despite SBF knowing what society considered immoral and unlawful, he dismissed that on the basis of a malicious, delusional belief influenced by his sense of superiority and values. 

According to Williams, the federal laws for SBF’s wrongdoings successfully called for more than 100 years behind bars. However, the Justice Department sentencing recommendation is founded exclusively on the offence’s nature, severity, and circumstances. 

Willaims said that SBF’s wrongdoings were grave and long-running, leading to losses of billions of dollars and considerable emotional and financial damage to several victims. The atrocity and the idea that this loss happened in the form of taking victims’ funds places Bankman-Fried in a class of offenders where sentences of 40 years or more are deserving.

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