A lawyer for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has criticized a suggested 100-year prison sentence as 'grotesque' and 'barbaric,' arguing that a term of a few years behind bars would be more appropriate for the cryptocurrency crimes he still disputes. The lawyer contends that the Probation office improperly calculated federal sentencing guidelines, recommending a sentence just 10 years short of the maximum potential 110-year sentence.
Bankman-Fried, accused of cheating investors and customers of at least $10 billion in businesses he controlled from 2017 through 2022, faces sentencing on March 28. Despite his FTX trading platform being seen as a pioneer in the cryptocurrency industry before its collapse into bankruptcy in November 2022, Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud and conspiracy charges at a November trial.
