Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, suspected of fraud, was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a court in Manhattan on Thursday.
Source: BELGA
Yesterday at 5:00 PM
32-year-old Bankman-Fried transferred customer funds to his investment fund Alameda Research between 2019 and 2022, without informing customers. It would amount to approximately $8 billion, part of which he would also have used to finance his expensive lifestyle. FTX succumbed to a lack of liquidity at the end of 2022.
In November last year, Bankman-Fried was found guilty of fraud by the court. Federal prosecutor Damien Willems asked earlier this month to sentence him to forty to fifty years in prison. According to him, that punishment was necessary to illustrate the seriousness of the crimes. According to Willems, this was “one of the largest financial frauds in American history”.
Bankman-Fried admitted at trial to making mistakes in the run-up to FTX’s bankruptcy, but insists he never intended to steal from customers.
A few years ago, the crypto exchange FTX was the largest trading platform for crypto coins in the world. As of 2021, she had an estimated $15 billion in assets. But in November last year, FTX went bankrupt after many customers suddenly tried to withdraw their money, but the platform turned out to have insufficient funds.
