US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan has handed down a 25-year prison sentence to Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of FTX, for defrauding and stealing billions of dollars from clients of the cryptocurrency platform. Despite Bankman-Fried claiming to be remorseful for the collapse of FTX, which exposed a fraud of around 10 billion dollars, Judge Kaplan dismissed his statement and instead focused on the seriousness of the crime.

During the trial, prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of diverting billions of dollars from FTX to its sister hedge fund, Alameda Research, to spend on speculative investments, political donations, and expensive real estate assets. As market volatility hit in 2022, lenders began asking for their money back and Bankman-Fried used FTX client funds to pay them off. However, an avalanche of customer withdrawals culminated in FTX filing for bankruptcy in November 2022 and Bankman-Fried resigning as CEO.

Despite initially denying any wrongdoing and claiming that he and his cryptocurrency empire were victims of the market crashes, Bankman-Fried faced up to 110 years behind bars after being found guilty last year of seven crimes, including fraud and conspiracy.