Former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried has bagged 25 years in prison for defrauding users of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York, US gave the sentence on Thursday in a hearing in New York Federal Court.
After a two-hour hearing Judge Kaplan said Bankman-Fried had obstructed justice and tampered with witnesses in mounting his defense — something Kaplan said he weighed in his sentencing decision.
Bankman-Fried, wearing a beige jailhouse jumpsuit, struck an apologetic tone, saying he had made a series of “selfish” decisions while leading FTX and “threw it all away.”
Bankman-Fried, however, told the court that FTX had the ability to repay customers when it collapsed.
Meanwhile, the prosecutors said Bankman-Fried took more than $10bn (£7.9bn) from unsuspecting customers in “one of the biggest financial frauds” in US history.
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