Friday Briefing: Sam Bankman-Fried Gets 25 Years

Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted of stealing $8 billion from customers of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. It was a significantly lighter sentence than the maximum penalty of 110 years that his charges carried, but was well above the six and a half years sought by his defense lawyers. Bankman-Fried was also ordered to forfeit $11.2 billion in assets.

The sentencing signified the finale of a sweeping fraud case that exposed greed and risk-taking across the loosely regulated world of cryptocurrencies. In November 2022, FTX imploded virtually overnight, erasing $8 billion in customer savings. At a trial last fall, Bankman-Fried was convicted of seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering.

His sentence ranks as one of the longest imposed on a white-collar defendant in recent years. Bankman-Fried has vowed to appeal his conviction. But in his remarks after receiving his sentence in New York City yesterday, he appeared to accept that he would be in prison for some time.

“At the end of the day, my useful life is probably over now,” he said.

In the days before the attack on a concert hall near Moscow that left at least 143 dead, Russia received warning from the U.S., but its security service failed to intervene.