The owner of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, better known by the alias SBF, has received a 25-year prison term for stealing billions of dollars from his clients.
“There are a lot of mistakes that I made,” Bankman-Fried told the court, but he insisted FTX could repay customers when it collapsed. Judge Lewis Kaplan said after a two-hour hearing that Bankman-Fried knew his actions were illegal and regretted his bad bet on the likelihood of being caught.
According to the prosecution, Bankman-Fried committed “one of the biggest financial frauds” in US history, stealing almost $10 billion (£7.9 billion) from unwary clients.
Prior to its 2022 bankruptcy, FTX was worth 32 billion dollars, and SBF was responsible for cultivating an image that attracted politicians, celebrities, and business tycoons.
