FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison for $10 billion fraud

NEW YORK — Fallen FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday for stealing more than $10 billion from customers of his global cryptocurrency exchange.

Manhattan federal court Judge Lewis Kaplan handed down the steep prison term in a packed courtroom just before noon after hearing from one of more than 200 victims who contacted him ahead of sentencing.

“A lot of crying, sleepless nights. I have a baby son and another toddler,” Sunvil Kavuri, who traveled from London for the hearing, said, noting he was among many whose dreams were “destroyed” after losing everything when FTX imploded.

“I suffered every day, every week for the past few years,” he said.

Bankman-Fried, wearing tan colored prison wear, hung his head and looked somber as he learned his fate. He’s been incarcerated at Brooklyn’s federal jail since Kaplan revoked his $100 bond last year. He faced a maximum of 110 years in prison.

The 32-year-old from Palo Alto, Calif., was found guilty of wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, and related counts in November following a monthlong trial, at which he testified. Before handing down the term, Judge Kaplan said Bankman-Fried had perjured himself three times when he took the stand.

Federal prosecutors described his fraud as one of the largest in U.S. history. Trial testimony and evidence laid out how Bankman-Fried directed billions of dollars out of FTX, where people around the world bought and sold digital currency, into accounts controlled by its sister hedge fund, Alameda Research.

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