Sam Bankman-Fried, former boss of the FTX platform, sentenced to 25 years in prison in the United States for fraud

American Sam Bankman-Fried, former cryptocurrency tycoon, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud on Thursday March 28. The former manager of the FTX platform, which went bankrupt in November 2022, faced up to 110 years of criminal imprisonment in total. During the hearing before a New York court, the 30-year-old apologized, admitting to having “made a series of bad decisions”. He was found guilty in November 2023 of having used, without their knowledge, funds deposited by customers of his cryptocurrency exchange platform. Prosecutors had requested a sentence of 40 to 50 years in prison.

The embezzled money had fueled the risky transactions and investments of his investment company, Alameda Research, whose borrowings from FTX reached up to around $14 billion (13.2 billion euros). “Sam Bankman-Fried committed one of the biggest financial frauds in American history”Manhattan federal prosecutor Damian Williams said after the verdict was read in November 2023. “A multi-billion dollar scheme designed to make him the king of crypto.”