US Information
By Priscilla DeGregory
Printed
March 20, 2024, 2:29 p.m. ET
Sam Bankman-Fried isn’t any “supervillain,” his attorneys argued this week — whereas ripping federal prosecutors’ request to place the crypto criminal away for 40 to 50 years as being “marked with hostility.”
Legal professionals for Bankman-Fried — who was convicted in November of stealing $8 billion from prospects of his now-defunct FTX cryptocurrency change — mentioned the feds’ courtroom papers from Friday unfairly painted their consumer like a “supervillain” with “megalomaniacal motives.”
Prosecutors have a “medieval view of punishment” in asking for the decades-long sentence that “quantities to a death-in-prison” penalty, Bankman-Fried’s lawyer Marc Mukasey wrote in a letter filed in Manhattan federal courtroom Tuesday.
Bankman-Fried, 32, is ready to be sentenced on March 28, when his facet will argue he ought to solely be imprisoned for 5¼ to 6½ years.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s attorneys blasted the feds’ bid to throw him behind bars for 40 to 50 years. Getty Pictures
Mukasey accused the feds of wanting “to interrupt” his consumer and mentioned he hadn’t discovered one other occasion of a non-violent convict serving such a prolonged time period and getting let loose after.
“Maybe as a result of inmates endure a two-year decline in life expectancy for annually of imprisonment,” Mukasey wrote. “Crushing Sam on this method is pointless.”
A jury in November discovered Bankman-Fried responsible of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy after listening to testimony that he instructed his associates to loot FTX buyer funds to shore up losses at his hedge fund Alameda Analysis.
He additionally used the stolen funds to purchase luxurious actual property within the Bahamas and to donate to politicians he thought would again laws favorable to cryptocurrency, prosecutors argued at trial.
To this point, 251 political candidates and committees have given again $3.3 million in donations from Bankman-Fried and others at FTX, the feds mentioned.
Bankman-Fried’s attorneys mentioned their consumer isn’t any “supervillain” as prosecutors search to color him by asking for the draconian penalty. Obtained by Tiffany Fong
Prosecutors may also be searching for $11 billion in forfeiture from Bankman-Fried as a part of his sentence to repay lender and investor losses.
Bankman-Fried’s facet has mentioned it plans to attraction the conviction and sentence.
He’s been in jail since August after Decide Lewis Kaplan revoked his bail on the grounds that he seemingly engaged in witness tampering.
A spokesperson with the Manhattan US Lawyer’s Workplace declined to remark.
https://nypost.com/2024/03/20/us-news/sam-bankman-frieds-lawyers-say-proposed-50-year-sentence-portrays-him-as-super-villain/?utm_source=url_sitebuttons&utm_medium=websitepercent20buttons&utm_campaign=websitepercent20buttons
Copy the URL to share