Disgraced cryptocurrency con man Sam Bankman-Fried on Thursday appealed his fraud convictions and 25-year prison sentence, handed down after he was found responsible for orchestrating one of the biggest financial fraud schemes in American history.
In November 2023, a jury found the embattled founder of FTX guilty on all seven criminal-fraud counts for his role in the crypto exchange’s downfall. Those counts included wire fraud on customers of FTX, conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers of FTX, wire fraud on Alameda Research lenders, conspiracy to commit wire fraud on lenders to Alameda Research, conspiracy to commit securities fraud on investors in FTX, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud on customers of FTX, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Manhattan Judge Lewis Kaplan last month delivered Bankman-Fried’s sentence for stealing over $8 billion of customer funds from the bankrupt crypto firm. Federal prosecutors sought at least 40 years in prison for Bankman-Fried for perpetrating the FTX scam.
Though the fallen fintech guru faced a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison, his attorneys claimed such a hefty penalty would be “barbaric” since investors were expected to be repaid their losses. Prosecutors had asked for 40 to 50 years while his lawyers urged 63 to 78 months.
During the trial, lawyer Mark Cohen argued that his client was simply a “math nerd” whose fast-growing crypto empire spiraled out of control.
Prosecutors said he “misappropriated and embezzled FTX customer deposits, and used billions of dollars in stolen funds for a variety of purposes, including . . . to help fund over a hundred million dollars in campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans to seek to influence cryptocurrency regulation,” according to an August indictment.
Bankman-Fried was a Democrat megadonor, giving nearly $39 million to Democrat-aligned causes during the 2022 election cycle. He was extradited in December 2022 from the Bahamas, where FTX was located, to go to court on the first set of charges. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In December 2023, Kaplan decided that Bankman-Fried would not face a second criminal trial, at the request of prosecutors, who said the bulk of the evidence was already presented in the first proceeding. Prosecutors wrote in a note to the judge that there was a “strong public interest” in promptly resolving the case.