Sam Bankman-Fried: Disgraced ‘crypto king’ jailed for 25 years after stealing billions of dollars from FTX customers
Disgraced crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of stealing billions of dollars from his customers.
He was the chief executive of FTX, which suddenly went bankrupt in November 2022 – leaving millions of users frozen out of their accounts and unable to make withdrawals.
The 32-year-old American could have faced up to 100 years behind bars – but last month, his lawyers argued such a sentence would have been “barbaric” and a five-year term would be more appropriate.
Initial reports said he had been sentenced to 20 years – but this has since been corrected to 25.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to jail Bankman-Fried for 40 to 50 years, arguing the public needed protecting from the fraudster and a harsh punishment would deter other criminals.
“The defendant victimised tens of thousands of people and companies, across several continents, over a period of multiple years,” prosecutors said in a court filing.
“He stole money from customers who entrusted it to him; he lied to investors; he sent fabricated documents to lenders; he pumped millions of dollars in illegal donations into our political system; and he bribed foreign officials. Each of these crimes is worthy of a lengthy sentence.”
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Prosecutors also said Bankman-Fried had cost customers, investors and lenders over $10bn (£7.9bn) by misappropriating funds to fuel his quest for influence and dominance in the new industry, and had illegally used money from FTX depositors to cover his expenses, which included purchasing luxury properties in the Caribbean, alleged bribes to Chinese officials and private planes.
At the sentencing hearing in Manhattan, Judge Lewis Kaplan said the businessman lied on the witness stand when he insisted he had no knowledge of customer funds being used this way.
The judge also described Bankman-Fried’s claim that victims will be paid back in full as “misleading and logically flawed”.
“A thief who takes his loot to Las Vegas and successfully bets the stolen money is not entitled to a discount on the sentence by using his Las Vegas winnings to pay back what he stole,” Judge Kaplan warned.
The judge said that the sentence reflected “a risk that this man will be in a position to do something very bad in the future”.
“And it’s not a trivial risk at all.”
He added that it was “for the purpose of disabling him to the extent that can appropriately be done for a significant period of time”.
Before he was sentenced, Mr Bankman-Fried apologised in a rambling statement.
Sam Bankman-Fried leaving court last July. Pic: Reuters
“A lot of people feel really let down. And they were very let down. And I’m sorry about that. I’m sorry about what happened at every stage,” he said.
“My useful life is probably over. It’s been over for a while now, from before my arrest.”
Judge Kaplan said he would advise the Federal Bureau of Prisons to send him to a medium-security prison or less near the San Francisco area because he’s unlikely to be a physical threat to other inmates or prison staff, and his autism and social awkwardness would make him vulnerable to other inmates in a high-security location.
Read more:
The meteoric rise and even sharper fall of Sam Bankman-Fried
Why industry may never recover from downfall of ‘crypto king’
It took just five-and-a-half hours for a jury in New York to convict him of two counts of fraud and five of conspiracy last November.
Three people from Bankman-Fried’s inner circle – including his former girlfriend Caroline Ellison – pleaded guilty to related crimes and testified at his trial.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s colleague and on-off girlfriend Caroline Ellison testified against him. Pic: Reuters
Bankman-Fried’s conviction followed a dramatic fall from grace from his time as chief executive of FTX – the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world at one time – when he was worth billions of dollars on paper.
FTX allowed investors to buy dozens of virtual currencies, from Bitcoin to more obscure ones like Shiba Inu Coin.
Pic: Reuters
Flush with billions of dollars of investors’ cash, Bankman-Fried rode a crest of success that included a Super Bowl advertisement and celebrity endorsements from stars like quarterback Tom Brady, basketball star Stephen Curry and comedian Larry David.
But after the collapse of cryptocurrency prices in 2022, Bankman-Fried tried to plug the holes in the balance sheet of FTX’s hedge fund affiliate, known as Alameda Research.
Bankman-Fried’s victims – an estimated 80,000 of whom are based in the UK – remain out of pocket, with some losing their life savings.
Prosecutors described his crimes as one of the biggest financial frauds in US history.
World
Sky News obtains first accounts of what happened inside Syrian cities shaken by bloody violence
No checkpoint is the same, some want paperwork, others wave you through after a brief look inside – but from Damascus to Latakia, there are a lot of checkpoints, and in one way or another, you are checked every time.
It wasn’t like this just a month or two ago, but it is now after the most violent few days the country has seen since Bashar al Assad was forced from power in December last year.
We drove through cities like Jableh, on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, almost unrecognisable now.
The bustling streets, markets and shops are silent, apart from the sirens of passing General Security convoys – their armed soldiers packed on the back of pick-up trucks.
The debris of battle is everywhere, buildings are burnt out and peppered with bullet holes, glass from smashed shopfront windows spills across the pavement and spent machine gun casings litter the streets.
Cities like Jableh, on Syria’s Mediterranean Coast, are almost unrecognisable now
The debris of battle is everywhere after pro-Assad militia attacked the city
After three months of relatively peaceful times, things have dramatically changed here, all because of the events of 6, 7 and 8 March.
A Thursday, Friday, and Saturday that could determine Syria’s future.
Driving out of Jableh and over a bridge, we pass through another checkpoint, then through a deserted village, home to a community of Syrian Alawites. Shops and homes are destroyed, soldiers guard the roads in and out.
We are on our way to the Hmeimim air base, home to the Russian military in Syria.
It’s also now home to as many as 10,000 Alawites who are now camping in and around the base.
The Hmeimim air base is home to the Russian military in Syria
The site is also now home to as many as 10,000 Alawites camping in and around the area
They are seeking shelter and protection, watched on by Russian soldiers who remain inside.
Some of the thousands are in tents or under makeshift cover, others are sleeping rough or in their cars.
Thousands of people are in tents or under makeshift cover
One of many children displaced after her family were attacked by pro-Assad militia
Some are sleeping rough or in their cars
I first visited the airbase last December – then it consisted of a small cluster of shops and restaurants, established over years to service the Russian personnel.
Now the shops are shuttered and the restaurants cleared of tables to allow the families to sleep.
As I approached the gates of the base, I was surrounded by people pushing against each other, trying to get to me to tell me stories of being burnt out of their houses, or of family members killed in front of their eyes.
Crowds gather around Sky’s Stuart Ramsay to describe how their relatives were killed by pro-Assad forces
A young woman pulled me aside. “We need help, international help,” she whispered.
“We need international peacekeepers; my house was on fire.”
In the crowd, I met Adiba Shehaidi. She’s sleeping rough outside the base after escaping her village, Ain al Arous.
“They attacked us, just like that, slaughtered us, our friends, our neighbours, our children, our relatives – our in-laws, all of them, were slaughtered. They stormed the houses, shooting…” she recounted her story of escape.
“What can we say? To the world, what can we say? What was our crime?” she cried.
People in mourning after killings
Grieving relatives have described how their families were slaughtered
We were told that whole families had been killed with some buried in mass graves.
Not far away from the base, in the village of Al Sanobar – we found one. A mass grave consisting of two trenches, dug under the cover of darkness by villagers. They buried 80 people here.
Sticks had been placed in the earth to signal a body buried beneath. We are told a family of 17 are in one of the graves.
A mass grave in the village of Al-Sanobar
Sticks have been placed in the earth to show where a body is buried
Further into the village, we came across a group of men digging more graves. They told us they had found the bodies of their families, friends, and neighbours littered on the streets and in houses.
So far, they have buried 223 people, all from this one village.
Latakia, on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, is where pro-Assad fighters are accused of killing Alawite civilians
On trucks, the bodies wrapped in blankets and plastic were brought to their final resting place near their homes. Under a blistering sun a simple ceremony is held, then side by side they are buried.
These families have been devastated – their anguish obvious.
Read more:
Alawites take refuge from Syrian army
Government forces clash with Assad loyalists
Syria vows to investigate mass killings
Convoys of government security forces are now constantly patrolling all the areas where the killings took place, and they are trying to encourage the Alawites to return to their villages, saying it is now safe.
Convoys of government security forces are patrolling all the areas where the killings took place
The head of General Security, Mustafa Kunefate, told me what happened here was unacceptable and must not happen again.
He explained how Assad loyalists had attacked and killed soldiers, police officers, and civilians – filming it and posting it on social media. This, he said, led to “undisciplined groups” arriving to this part of Syria, acting “outside of the Ministry of Defence’s command”.
The head of General Security, Mustafa Kunefate, tells Sky’s Stuart Ramsay that Assad loyalists were to blame for the killings
Kunefate: What happened was unacceptable and must not happen again
“Among these groups were some with a questionable intent, many arrived with no clear instructions, simply coming to break the siege on the Ministry of Defence personnel and police,” Mr Kunefate told me.
“This resulted in chaos and a breakdown of discipline among the fighting groups that entered the coastal region.”
The scene of some of the worst fighting happened in the city of Jableh when the pro-Assad militia attacked. Much of the centre of town has been badly damaged in the fighting, and it is tense.
Security convoys patrol cities like Jableh, badly damaged during fighting with pro-Assad forces.
General Security convoys constantly patrol the city, home to Sunni civilians who were murdered like their Alawite neighbours.
Imad Bitar’s father Talal died after his car was fired upon by Assad fighters.
I met him in their family home where he told me he wants peace but believes it will only happen when Assad’s fighters are captured.
Sunni civilians in the city of Jableh were also murdered by pro-Assad fighters, including Imad Bitar’s father Talal
“We must find a way to live together, our only demand now is for the remaining factions to leave Syria and for those responsible for the regime’s crimes to face a formal trial. It’s not about sectarian divisions, it’s about justice.”
This has been a difficult time for the new government trying to unite Syria.
The massacres of Alawites at the hands of militia puts President Ahmed al Sharaa’s unity project in jeopardy.
But if there is a positive from that dreadful weekend, it is that the government acknowledges the mistakes and is promising to bring those responsible to justice.
The World with Yalda Hakim at 9pm on Sky News will feature a series of special reports on Syria from our chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay and special correspondent Alex Crawford.
Watch their latest report inside Al-Hol camp, where thousands of families affiliated to the former Islamic State group are being held by Kurdish forces in northeast Syria.
A crew has entered the International Space Station (ISS) to replace the astronauts who were stranded there for nine months.
A SpaceX capsule delivered four astronauts on Sunday on a mission to allow Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams – who have been on the ISS since June 2024 – to return home.
The Dragon craft, with the Crew-10 astronauts inside, docked with the orbiting laboratory at 4.04am UK time, around 29 hours after it had been launched on the top of the Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Butch Wilmore (back row centre) and Suni Williams (back row right) celebrate with the rest of the astronauts replacing them on the International Space Station.
The replacement crew, including Russia’s Kirill Peskov (centre), were welcomed on board the International Space Station (ISS). Pic: NASA
NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, both military pilots, along with Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russia’s Kirill Peskov, both former airline pilots, will spend the next six months at the space station.
Their mission will allow four members of Crew-9, which includes Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams, to return to Earth.
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore during their unplanned nine month stay in space.
File pic: NASA/AP
It took several minutes for Dragon to safely dock at the ISS, in what is an automated process.
But there was about 1 hour and 45 minutes of additional safety checks before the hatch could be opened.
Mr Wilmore swung open the space station’s hatch and rang the ship’s bell as the arrivals floated in one by one and were greeted with hugs and handshakes.
How they were stranded
Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams originally planned to go to space for just eight days but got stuck on the station after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft started experiencing problems.
Technical issues left them stranded, and various attempts to bring them home were unsuccessful.
The craft encountered so many problems that NASA insisted it return to Earth empty, leaving the pilots behind until now.
‘You can hardly even put it into words’
“It was a wonderful day. Great to see our friends arrive,” Ms Williams told Mission Control after the new astronauts had been welcomed aboard.
The moments after docking with Suni Williams, centre, finally facing the prospect of returning back to Earth.
Pic: NASA/AP
The astronauts, including Japan’s Takuya Onishi, greeting one another after arrival on the International Space Station.
Pic: NASA/AP
Speaking after the successful docking, Ms McClain added: “Crew-10 has had a great journey up here and I cannot tell you the immense joy of our crew when we looked out the window and we saw the space station for the first time.
“That is such an amazing journey. You can hardly even put it into words.”
The dragon capsule was manoeuvred towards ISS before it docked. Pic: NASA
The view from the ISS as the Dragon capsule edged closer and docked. Pic: NASA
The journey back to Earth
The four newcomers will spend the next few days learning the station’s ins and outs from Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams.
Then the two of them will strap into their own capsule later in the week, one that has been up there since last year, to close out the unexpected extended mission.
The pair’s ride back arrived in late September with a downsized crew of two and two empty seats reserved for the leg back.
The Dragon capsule safely docked with the International Space Station. Pic: NASA
But more delays emerged when their replacements’ brand new capsule needed extensive battery repairs.
An older capsule took its place, pushing up their return by a couple of weeks to mid-March.
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Weather permitting, the SpaceX capsule carrying them and two other astronauts will undock no earlier than Wednesday and splash down off Florida’s coast.
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