Crypto fraudster Bankman-Fried got 25 years. He embezzled eight billion dollars

According to the prosecutor’s office, Bankman-Fried defrauded clients, investors and officials out of about ten billion dollars (roughly K234 billion). For the founder of FTX, she proposed a sentence of between 40 and 50 years in prison, while his defense attorneys called for an adequate sentence of up to six and a half years in prison.

According to the prosecutor’s office, Bankman-Fried illegally used the FTX client’s pension for his own purposes, including the purchase of luxury real estate in the Caribbean.

Over the course of several years, tens of thousands of people and companies from several countries became involved. He stole the pensions his clients gave him. He lied to investors, sent forged documents by wire, pumped millions of dollars in the form of illegal donations into our political system and bribed foreign officials. Each of these crimes carries a long sentence, the AP agency quotes from the prosecutor’s office.

The American cryptocurrency exchange FTX was valued at around 32 billion dollars (745 billion crowns) by the end of 2022, and before its collapse it was the second largest institution of its kind in the world. The stock exchange, which was the gateway to the digital asset market for millions of people, declared bankruptcy in November 2022. It was prompted by the liquidity crisis, which, according to the copper, deprived clients of at least one billion dollars (no more than 23 billion crowns).

Last November, the jury of the American federal court found Bankman-Fried guilty in the case of embezzlement of billions, which according to the prosecutor’s office was one of the largest frauds in the history of the United States. The court found Bankman-Fried guilty on all seven counts of embezzlement after a month-long trial.

According to the complaint, before the collapse of his companies in November 2022, he defrauded the press and defrauded them of billions of dollars, which he used for investments, real estate, promoting his stock market and political endorsements.

The Democrat was buying houses in the Bahamas

Bankman-Fried started his career at Jane Street Capital, which deals in ETFs. In 2017, he founded the trading company Alameda Research and later became its sole owner. He fell in love with the bitcoin cryptocurrency trading company and profited from the differences in bitcoin prices on exchanges in Asia and the United States. In April 2019, he founded the FTX cryptocurrency derivatives exchange.

Bankman-Fried’s fortune at one point reached $26 billion, according to Forbes magazine. At the beginning of December 2022, Bankman-Fried said that he only had one credit card left and one hundred thousand dollars in the bank (2.3 million crowns).

He presented himself as a supporter of effective altruism, he became the head of the non-profit organization Giving What You Can. he said, for example, that he wanted to donate half of his property to effective charitable organizations during his lifetime.

Bankman-Fried was one of the main sponsors of the American Democratic Party. In 2020, he contributed $5.2 million to the presidential campaign of current head of state Joe Biden.

Reuters reported in late 2022 that over the past two years, Bankman-Fried, his family and high-ranking employees of FTX had bought at least 19 properties in the Bahamas worth around $121 million (K2.9 billion).

Bankman-Fried was docked in the Bahamas in December 2022 on a US ship. He was later released on $250 million bail paid in bonds on the condition that he spend the remainder of his trial under house arrest at his parents’ home in California. Last August, the court annulled his release on bail. It became apparent that Bankman-Fried repeatedly tried to influence witnesses.