BREAKING: FTX Founder Sam Bankman Fried Sentenced To 25 Years In Prison For Crypto Fraud

On Thursday, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the multi-billion dollar fraud he committed against crypto investors through his exchange and the related hedge fund Alameda Research. Bankman-Fried was facing a possible 110-year prison sentence for his crimes, which led to thousands of investors losing money in the collapsing firm.

"They built something really beautiful, and I threw all of that away. It haunts me every day," Bankman-Fried, a large donor to Democrat politicians and a crypto "poster boy," said about his employees. "It's been excruciating to watch this all unfold. Customers don't deserve this level of pain. I was the CEO of FTX and I was responsible." According to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, Bankman-Fried had perjured himself during the trial and attempted to obstruct justice, per CNBC.

“He knew it was wrong. 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,” said Judge Kaplan. “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.”

FTX collapsed in November 2022 leading to over $8 billion of customer funds disappearing overnight. Bankman-Fried is one of the most notorious white-collar criminals in recent decades, possibly only matched by Bernie Madoff's ponzi scheme that collapsed following the 2008 financial crisis.

“Samuel Bankman-Fried orchestrated one of the largest financial frauds in history, stealing over $8 billion of his customers’ money," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “His deliberate and ongoing lies demonstrated a brazen disregard for his customers’ expectations and disrespect for the rule of law, all so that he could secretly use his customers’ money to expand his own power and influence."

This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.

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