A former prosecutor with the U.S. Justice Department’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Section reportedly says that Sam Bankman-Fried may only receive about 25 years in prison.
On November 2nd, a jury of 12 found Bankman-Fried guilty of seven criminal charges related to the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
With his sentencing scheduled for March 28th of next year, Bankman-Fried faces a maximum of 115 years in prison, but legal experts are already weighing in on how much time the 31-year-old will actually get.
Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti tells CNBC that Judge Lewis Kaplan will not likely be lenient when he imposes the sentence.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if SBF spends the next 20 or 25 years of his life in prison.”
Mariotti says Bankman-Fried will likely spend many years behind bars because of the scale of his crimes and his behavior during the trial.
“The sheer scale of his fraud was immense, he was defiant and lied on the witness stand, and Judge Kaplan had very little patience for his antics while out on bond. He will have more sympathy for the victims than he has for Bankman-Fried.”
In August, Kaplan revoked the former Jane Street trader’s $250 million bail after the prosecution sought his detention over a series of violations including contacting potential witnesses against him.
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