A judge Lewis Kaplan has just sentenced Sam Bankman-Fried or SBF, the founder and former CEO of the FTX exchange, to 25 years in prison after a grueling trial.
Before delivering the sentence, Judge Lewis Kaplan briefly revisited the facts, explaining that some arguments from the defense were not admissible. The defense claimed that FTX exchange’s clients and other creditors would be fully reimbursed, a notion that the judge dismissed citing that the reimbursement value is determined by prices at the time of bankruptcy.
Additionally, he made an interesting analogy:
The fortuitous increase in the value of some cryptocurrencies bears no relevance to the severity of the crimes committed. A thief who takes his loot to Las Vegas and successfully gambles does not deserve a sentence reduction.
Judge Kaplan
The judge also noted attempts to tamper with witnesses and acts of perjury during SBF’s testimonies:
The total level of the offense is 60 – once the threshold of 43 has been crossed, it cannot go any higher. The guideline is life imprisonment. But the maximum in this case is 1,320 months.
Judge Kaplan
SBF and the defense plan to appeal the initial court ruling, as stated by SBF’s new lawyer, Mark Mukasey, with the support of Torrey Young. The defense also attempted to portray Sam Bankman-Fried as a ‘pretty puzzle,’ an ‘awkward math nerd and vegan enthusiast.’
