Feds seek 40-50 years in prison for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried

Federal prosecutors on Friday recommended that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried receive 40-50 years in prison after being convicted of federal fraud charges related to the collapse of his cryptocurrency empire.

In November of 2022, FTX suffered the equivalent of a bank run when investors attempted to withdraw their stakes in the firm, rendering it unable to remunerate its investors. The sudden collapse shocked the financial world and led to intense scrutiny of the firm's internal workings. Bankman-Fried was extradited the same year and ultimately convicted last November.

He faces a maximum sentence of 110 years in prison, though his own lawyers have asked for 63-78 months, The Hill reported. Prosecutors, for their part, want much more.

"Samuel Bankman-Fried was convicted of orchestrating one of the largest financial frauds in history, and what is likely the largest fraud in the last decade," prosecutors wrote. "The enormous scale of the fraud at FTX is measured not just by the amount of money that was stolen, although the more-than-$8 billion of customer money that was misappropriated puts this crime in a class of cases that can be counted on one hand."

"The unprecedented scope of the fraud at FTX may also be measured in the number and types of victims, in the fraud’s geographic reach, and in the breadth and frequency of the unlawful and unethical acts undertaken by the defendant in service of a scheme to use other people’s money for his own benefit and influence," they continued. "The defendant victimized tens of thousands of people and companies, across several continents, over a period of multiple years. He stole money from customers who entrusted it to him; he lied to investors; he sent fabricated documents to lenders; he pumped millions of dollars in illegal donations into our political system; and he bribed foreign officials. Each of these crimes is worthy of a lengthy sentence."

"Although it is unlikely (but not impossible) that the defendant will work in finance again, and will likely forfeit all of his ill-gotten gains, justice requires that he receive a prison sentence commensurate with the extraordinary dimensions of his crimes. For these reasons, the legitimate purposes of punishment require a sentence of 40 to 50 years' imprisonment," the prosecutors concluded.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan will sentence Bankman-Fried on March 28.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.