Crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison

On March 28, former cryptocurrency tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted of fraud, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Thus ended an extraordinary saga that overturned the multi-trillion dollar crypto industry and became a cautionary tale of greed and pride, AFP reported.
Bankman-Fried's sentence is shorter than the 40 to 50 years that federal prosecutors had recommended, but higher than the 6 1/2 years his attorneys had requested. A federal probation officer had recommended 100 years, just short of the maximum possible sentence of 110 years behind bars.
Before sentencing, Bankman-Fried apologized to FTX's customers, investors and employees. "A lot of people feel really disappointed and they were very disappointed," he said. "I'm sorry for that. I'm sorry for what happened at every stage." He added that his decisions "haunt him" every day.
The verdict marked the end of a massive fraud case that exposed rampant volatility and risk-taking in the loosely regulated world of cryptocurrencies. In November 2022, Bankman-Fried's crypto exchange, FTX, imploded virtually overnight, wiping out $8 billion in customer savings. At a trial last fall, he was convicted of seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering.
His sentence is one of the longest imposed on a white-collar criminal defendant in recent years. In 2009, Bernie Madoff, who masterminded the infamous Ponzi scheme that collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis, received a 150-year sentence. He was 70 years old at the time and died 12 years later. Elizabeth Holmes, who was convicted of defrauding investors in her blood-testing startup Theranos, was sentenced to 11 years and three months in 2022./BGNES