Parent of FTX victim who lost $130,000 asks judge to go easy on SBF, suggests six years in prison versus DOJ’s 40-50
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried arrives for a bail hearing at Manhattan Federal Court on August 11, 2023 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Heather Ferguson’s son lost approximately $130,000 in cash when crypto exchange FTX went bankrupt in November 2022. At the time, Ferguson traveled to where her child was living to spend four days consoling him. Since touching bottom, however, he has shown “resilience,” “confidence,” and a “determination to meet life’s challenges head on with renewed focus and vigor,” Ferguson wrote in a note to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Tuesday.
It helps that in January, her son was contacted by the entity overseeing the disbursement of FTX client funds and told that he would be refunded the full amount he was owed.
“I am writing to convey my hope that Sam Bankman-Fried will be given a sentence in the range of 70 months for his role in the collapse of FTX,” Ferguson wrote in her letter to the judge. “The hope that customer funds will be reimbursed in some measures mitigates the severity of Sam’s guilt, and it seems to me that the length of his sentence should reflect this fact.”
Ferguson’s letter is part of an eleventh hour push by the defense to appeal to Kaplan’s sense of leniency as the judge gears up for Bankman-Fried’s sentencing hearing on Thursday.
In November, a jury of twelve found the former crypto executive guilty of all seven criminal counts against him, including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud against FTX customers and against Alameda Research lenders; conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit commodities fraud against FTX investors; and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
That the jury was able to reach a unanimous verdict in just a few hours that FTX’s ex-CEO stole $8 billion from customers of his now bankrupt crypto exchange suggests that they were truly convinced and that there were no holdouts that needed to be coaxed, Yesha Yadav, law professor and Associate Dean at Vanderbilt University, previously told CNBC.
On Tuesday, the defense submitted three letters in support of Bankman-Fried, while prosecutors filed more than 50 letters of their own, bringing the total number of victim impact statements to 117.
The question of whether FTX customers being made whole through bankruptcy should influence the court’s decision over sentencing is a major point of contention.
Earlier this month, federal prosecutors in Manhattan wrote in a memo to the court that Bankman-Fried should spend between 40 and 50 years in prison.
“Even now Bankman-Fried refuses to admit what he did was wrong,” the government wrote.
Even as the bankruptcy estate promises to pay back customers in full, many of FTX’s thousands of victims (reportedly up to a million) argue that their crypto stakes have been significantly undervalued by the exchange’s new leadership team.
Parents chime in
Ferguson was one of three concerned parents to write Kaplan, suggesting that Bankman-Fried’s emotional and behavioral disorders be taken into account as part of his deliberations over sentencing.
“Along the vein of mitigating factors, some mention should be made of Sam’s ASD and the afflictive emotions that stemmed from his ADHD and his medications,” Ferguson wrote. “These are relevant factors in his background which likely caused him to show poor judgment, but did not likely correlate with an intention to be malicious toward his clients.”
Bankman-Fried’s psychiatrist, George Lerner, told Judge Lewis Kaplan in a letter in August that the former FTX CEO has a history of depression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. ADHD is among the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in children.
“Additionally, there have been times when Mr. Bankman-Fried did not have access to the Emsam patch (typically when travelling/abroad) and exhibited symptoms of depression, including lethargy, anhedonia, low motivation, and increased ruminations,” Lerner wrote.
Without his medication, Lerner warned the judge, “Bankman-Fried will experience a return of his depression and ADHD symptoms and will be severely negatively impacted in his ability to assist in his own defense.”
At one point during Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial last year, the defense team also argued that he was not receiving adequate access to prescribed medication, including Adderall, a treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. And when initially remanded to custody, lawyers for Bankman-Fried argued that their client had a “limited” and “dwindling” supply of Emsam, a transdermal patch for treating depression.
Maria Centrella, the mother of a 34-year-old son with Asperger’s Syndrome, also wrote to Judge Kaplan to share her experience raising a child on the Autism spectrum.
“I have no opinion as to his guilt or innocence under the law, but do want to share with you my experiences with my son that hopefully might give you some pause to reflect on Sam’s behavior and mental state leading up to and during the trial,” wrote Centrella, who says that she was not familiar with Bankman-Fried’s story until she watched Michael Lewis’s “60 Minutes” interview, in which he shared anecdotes from shadowing Bankman-Fried as part of reporting a book about his life.
“As he described Sam I saw my son and kept wondering why Asperger’s never came up in the segment, because those of us knowledgeable about it, could see his behavior, his mannerisms … and his brilliance… as huge indicators of him being on the spectrum,” Centrella wrote.
She went on to say that she reached out to Bankman-Fried’s father, Joe, who confirmed that Sam had indeed been diagnosed as on the autism spectrum and that the court had been made aware.
“I have no idea how familiar you are with Asperger’s, particularly those who are out working and supporting themselves, but I can speak from experience that the mind of those on the spectrum works differently. Though I have never met Sam, I firmly believe that while he may be an MIT grad – he did not fully understand the scope of what was going on and did not have malicious intent,” she wrote.
Matt Kelly, who also has an autistic son and has worked as a special needs teacher in the UK, wrote a three paragraph letter to share his personal and professional observations that “might be of consideration when deciding a sentence.”
“Many of Sam’s personality traits suggest some type of atypical neurological processes; whether this is a tendency to avoid eye contact, a habit of being unable to focus on one thing at a time, or a lack of emotional response in a situation where most people would show outward signs of strain and distress,” wrote Kelly.
“He has also witnessed his ex-partner and associates testify against him in court, and to a
person with unusual processing, this may have been confusing and upsetting,” Kelly added. “I hope that account is taken of Sam’s abnormal presentation in your sentencing, so that retribution is in proportion to the degree of fault, and that account is taken of which type of institution would be most appropriate in the case of someone like Sam.”
MIT roommate: He did communal laundry “on time”
Two of Bankman-Fried’s former friends and roommates at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology also submitted character references on his behalf.
Daniel Grazian, who graduated in 2013, says that he knew Bankman-Fried “well” for three years.
“Sam was a kind friend and a wonderful person to be around,” Grazian wrote in his letter to the court.
He goes on to say that Bankman-Fried “felt deeply for every living being, farm animals included” and that his portrayal as “being motivated by greed” was “completely inconsistent” with the Sam he knew.
“I believe that if Sam is given a lenient sentence, he will be an asset to society. If the fact that I still limit my meat consumption on ethical grounds is any indication, Sam will continue inspiring others to be a little bit kinder and gentler,” concludes Grazian’s letter.
Another classmate, Adam Hesterberg, who was part of the PhD class of 2018, had known Bankman-Fried before MIT, beginning at a math camp in 2007.
“In the time I knew him, Sam was responsible, was pleasant to be around, and cared about doing good for the world,” wrote Hesterberg in a letter to the judge.
One example he cited was Bankman-Fried’s role in executing house chores.
“Sam did his fair share of chores, usually by washing the pots and dishes used in cooking our meals and doing our kitchen laundry. He consistently did so well and on time; I only observed him late once, when a queue for the washing machine delayed the kitchen laundry,” the letter states.
Hesterberg went on to detail other instances of Bankman-Fried’s good nature, including wanting to “reduce farm animals’ suffering” and encourage his fellow classmates to donate to charitable causes, such as the Against Malaria Foundation.
“I don’t know to what extent a character reference from a decade ago should affect Sam’s sentencing, but to whatever extent it does, my impression of Sam was almost uniformly positive and is an argument for leniency in his sentence,” Hesterberg concludes.
Honda is moving forward with its Fastport delivery quadcycle, and we got a chance to see it up close and take it for a quick spin.
We told you about Honda’s 4-wheeled delivery vehicle back in June, and we were excited about the idea of right-sizing delivery vehicles in urban centers that are often clogged with car traffic.
To catch you up, it’s a four-wheeled electric cargo vehicle that Honda has been working on for short-range, intra-city deliveries. It has 650lb capacity and a 12mph top speed, with 23 miles of range.
That’s not a huge range number, but we’re talking about cities here – Manhattan is 13×2 miles, San Francisco is 7×7 miles, for example. Also, the 2 x 1.3kWh batteries are 22lbs each and easily swappable if you need a little more juice.
The main concept here is that the vehicle is small, built to fit within the width of a bike lane, and to be treated as one in vehicle regulations. This means you can get cargo around in a smaller package than big delivery trucks, causing less traffic, congestion, road wear, and pollution.
Its presence in the bike lane is the reason for some of those limitations above – EU regulations mean the motor can only go up to 250W continuous draw, which also leads to a 12mph top speed for a vehicle that could be laden with ~1,700lbs of bike, cargo and rider (there is also a “small” version which is narrower and shorter, with 320lb capacity, for smaller roads).
But all that is nice on paper, what’s it like in person?
We got a little tour of the bike up close, and then a very brief ride and chance to do a couple three-point turns. And they did have to be three-point turns – this bike is quite long and unwieldy. A smaller turning circle would be nice.
Honda calls the drive system “pedal-by-wire,” and describes it as unique, and it certainly felt as such. The pedaling experience feels fully disconnected from the motor – you do spin the pedals, but the bike seems to do its own thing entirely. This felt strange to me as a person who is used to a torque sensor e-bike, where I’m still pushing even if the bike is helping me.
You might ask why there’s no throttle if the pedals just send a signal to the motor – this is to comply with regulations, making this technically a “pedal assist” vehicle, even though the bike is doing everything.
This is nice for accessibility, as you won’t need to be an athlete to drag 650lbs of cargo around behind you, but it also means the motor and batteries will be doing all of the work and you’ll be limited to a total of 250W of power (whereas if you combined that with the legs of a cyclist, you could add another hundred watts or two of human pedal power).
One question I had is how 2.6kWh worth of batteries could run a 12mph, 250W draw motor for only 23 miles – some napkin math suggests that the range should be much higher than that. But it turns out that the motor has much higher peak draw, as when we were accelerating, it would pull well over 2kW according to the display. And given the batteries are easily swappable, this isn’t much of a limitation.
The display and handlebars are much more normal-looking than those seen in early renders. Rather than a large iPad-like display in the center, there’s a smaller one with a rear-view camera (helpful, but not well-calibrated – it makes you seem closer to objects than you actually are), and a side display with the sort of details you’d see in most bike computers, like speed and motor power. The displays are usable with polarized glasses, which is nice, since I’ve encountered quite a few bike displays which aren’t.
The shroud covering the rider’s “compartment” blocks UV light and helps to insulate from rain and wind. The final version will extend further down, adding more wind protection for legs and feet – but when it’s hot out, there’s a ventilation fan as well. Honda told us some things about the bike are still being tweaked from the version we saw… but first deliveries are supposed to start imminently, so we imagine the final version will look quite a lot like what we saw.
The cargo area on the bike is quite basic, just a big box. Shelving or other attachments could be added, depending on the specific implementation (food delivery, flowers, or whatever else). The box can be opened from the side or rear, with a horizontal sliding door on the side, and a vertical sliding door on the rear. It’s available in two sizes, depending on how big your bike lanes and delivery needs are.
But in addition to that basic cargo area, the vehicle has telematics built in, which are very valuable to fleets who want to know where their items are and how deliveries are going at any given time. And will help enable Honda to offer these quads as a “fleet as a service,” where businesses can get access to delivery vehicles, and Honda will even handle battery swaps.
Electrek’s Take
I love the idea of moving deliveries to smaller vehicles, especially since giant trucks can be such a problem in city centers.
But it’s particularly interesting looking at this vehicle versus the type of small delivery trucks that exist in other countries and that we don’t get much of here in the US.
For example, Japanese kei trucks can have a cargo capacity of 700-1000lbs, GVWR of ~2,500lbs, and a maximum length of 134 inches. Compare that to a cargo capacity of 320-650lbs (for small and large versions, respectively), GVWR of 1,433-1,765lbs and length of 134-148 inches for the Honda delivery quad.
So the kei truck has quite a bit more cargo capacity for a similar footprint, but then it makes pollution and requires more road infrastructure than the quad would. And of course… we simply don’t have them in the US.
So, whether comparing them to a gigantic delivery vehicle or even the smaller trucks available in Japan or some parts of Europe, this offers a distinct new option for getting goods around in a city – and one which requires less of the car and truck infrastructure that has taken over our public spaces.
That said… I think a higher speed would be preferable so as not to get in the way of cyclists, or in the case that the vehicle decides to take a real lane and can then keep up with traffic. It will be interesting to see how this and other cargo bikes turn out, whether they gain traction and what sort of challenges they might help cities avoid… or present on their own.
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US-based Factorial Energy and South Korea’s POSCO FUTURE M are teaming up on all-solid-state batteries, the “holy grail” of battery tech.
Factorial and POSCO take on all-solid-state EV batteries
All-solid-state batteries promise significant improvements in driving range, charging times, and safety. Although next-gen battery tech shows promise in the lab, proving it in the real world hasn’t been easy.
For one, new equipment is needed to manufacture them. All-solid-state batteries also use a solid electrolyte, unlike the liquid electrolyte used in current lithium-ion batteries.
One of the biggest challenges in bringing the new battery tech to market has been finding a solid material that doesn’t crack yet still conducts electricity.
Factorial Energy and POSCO look to change that. The two companies announced a new partnership at the Future Battery Forum in Berlin this week. Under the agreement, Factorial and POSCO will combine resources to develop materials for all-solid-state batteries.
POSCO already supplies cathode and anode materials to global battery leaders, including LG Energy Solution, SK On, Samsung SDI, and Ultium Cells. Now, it’s looking to strengthen its all-solid-state materials business.
The company is already developing new cathode and silicon anode materials for all-solid-state batteries, but POSCO said it’s also continuing R&D on lithium-metal anode materials and sulfide-based solid electrolytes.
“Solid-state batteries are entering a new era of commercial readiness,” according to Factorial’s CEO, Siyu Huang.
Factorial said that by teaming up with POSCO, it will not only accelerate material development, but also “drive meaningful cost reductions at scale.”
In 2022, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, and Stellantis were among the major automakers that invested in Factorial’s $200 million fundraising. The company delivered the first solid-state battery cells based on its FEST (Factorial Electrolyte System Technology) platform last summer.
Factorial and Mercedes introduced the co-developed Solstice all-solid-state battery in September 2024, based on the FEST platform.
The company aims to deliver a driving range of over 600 miles with the new battery tech. Mercedes announced in September that it had driven a modified EQS, equipped with a solid-state battery from Stuttgart, Germany, to Malmö, Sweden. After covering 750 miles (1,205 km), the EV still had 85 miles of range remaining.
Mercedes’ tech boss, Markus Schäfer, called solid-state batteries “a true gamechanger for electric mobility,” adding the new tech “delivers not only in the lab but also on the road.”
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For years, the loudest and most persistent argument coming from the Tesla camp, including Elon Musk himself, against Waymo has been simple: “Sure, it works, but it can’t scale.”
The narrative, usually pushed by those heavily invested in the promise of Tesla’s “generalized Full Self-Driving”, was that Waymo was a geofenced parlor trick. They argued that Waymo’s reliance on lidar, radar, and, specifically, high-definition (HD) mapping would mean it would take years to launch in every new city.
But the narrative is now dying, as Waymo went from testing to fully autonomous in a couple of Texas cities in just a few months.
Unlike Tesla, Waymo has been offering fully autonomous commercial rides for years, which has been a threat to the narrative Elon Musk has been pushing: that Tesla is the leader in autonomous driving.
Musk’s solution has been to claim that Waymo’s system is not scalable compared to Tesla’s and Tesla investors have been betting heavily on him being right on this.
Well, that narrative just officially died deep in the heart of Texas.
Based on the latest operational updates as of early December 2025, Waymo has pulled human safety drivers from its vehicles in both Dallas and Houston. While currently restricted to employee rides before a public launch in 2026, the vehicles are now operating fully autonomously in these complex urban environments.
But the fact that they are autonomous isn’t the biggest news here. The biggest news is the timeline.
Waymo only officially began on-road testing with its Jaguar I-Pace fleet in Dallas and Houston around May of 2025. That means it took the Alphabet-owned company roughly six to seven months to go from “wheels on the ground” initial mapping and testing to removing the human driver entirely in two massive, distinct metropolitan areas simultaneously.
To put that in perspective, think about Waymo’s original pilot in Chandler, Arizona. We watched that program iterate for what felt like half a decade before they were confident enough to fully remove the safety drivers. San Francisco was faster, but it was still a long, arduous slog of validation under intense regulatory scrutiny.
This pace in early markets is what fueled the “Waymo can’t scale” argument. Critics looked at the years spent in the Phoenix suburbs and assumed that was the permanent velocity of Waymo’s expansion.
The Texas rollout proves that assumption wrong. What changed? Waymo has achieved what they describe as a “generalizable Waymo Driver.”
Waymo’s AI isn’t relearning the concept of a stop sign or a pedestrian every time it enters a new zip code. It already knows how to drive. When it enters a new market now, it is primarily validating that base knowledge against local flavor, specific types of intersections, regional driving aggression levels, or unique Texas U-turn laws.
The “crutch” of HD mapping, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk once famously called “unscalable,” is proving to be much less of a hurdle than predicted. Waymo has clearly streamlined the process of generating and updating these maps to the point where they can spin up two major U.S. cities in half a year, with many more to come.
Electrek’s Take
I’ve been saying for a while now that the “Waymo is stuck in a geofence” argument was running on fumes, but this Texas news should be the final nail in the coffin.
Now, the other argument that the Tesla crowd is going to cling to is cost. Tesla undoubtedly has a big advantage there, but again, it’s priced lower as a system that hasn’t achieved unsupervised autonomy yet.
Meanwhile, Waymo has reduced the cost of its driver by more than 50% with its 5th-generation system, and it is expected to cost less than $20,000 with the 6th generation in the new Zeeker van. That’s starting to be competitive with Tesla price-wise, and again, with a system that actually has already achieved level 4 autonomy.
The goalposts for AV success are constantly moved by critics, but the speed of deployment was the last verifiable metric where Tesla bulls felt they had the upper hand, theoretically. The idea was that once Tesla “solved” FSD, it would work everywhere instantly, leapfrogging Waymo’s plodding city-by-city approach.
But reality is catching up to theory. While Tesla’s FSD (supervised) is an incredibly impressive driver-assist system, it is still stuck at Level 2, requiring constant human attention after years of “robotaxi next year” promises.
Musk claimed Tesla would remove supervisors from cars in Austin “within a few months”, but it has now been almost 6 months, and the crash rate indicates that Tesla shouldn’t remove the supervisors any time soon.
Meanwhile, on the same timeline, Waymo just dropped into two of the largest, most car-centric cities in America and went fully driverless.
The scoreboard speaks for itself.
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