Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in FTX fraud

Manhattan court in its ruling Thursday sentenced crypto exchanger Sam Bankman-Fried to 25 years in federal incarceration for conducting fraud with his customers.

During the hearing, Judge Lewis Kaplan concurred with the prosecutors that Sam Bankman-Fried aimed to become the most influential person in the US, rendering him carry out illicit financial activities.

The judge also said that there was a risk "that this man will be in a position to do something very bad in the future, and it’s not a trivial risk."

Bankman-Fried was said to be ashamed of his mistakes and was sorry for what happened to customers but "never said a word of remorse for the commission of terrible crimes," according to CNN.

The 32-year-old started the crypto exchange FTX in 2019, becoming its CEO. In January 2022, the value of FTX was at $32 billion, with SoftBank and BlackRock among investors.

However, in November 2022, SBF’s firm filed for bankruptcy as people withdrew billions of dollars withdrawals.

The panic was fulled by a piece of leaked information underlining financial irregularities between FTX and his another firm.

The infamous currency dealer joined the list of high-profile financial criminals like Bernard Madoff, who was sentenced to 150 years for the $20 billion Ponzi scheme. It was the largest financial fraud in history.

Another concerned the founder of Theranos Elizabeth Holmes, for defrauding investors while running the blood testing company. She was sentenced last year in May.

Together, my partners "built something beautiful," Bankman-Fried said, adding "and I threw it all away and it haunts me every day.