What to expect at the Sam Bankman-Fried sentencing hearing

On March 28, former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried will face a judge and learn whether his time in federal prison is coming to an end or he will begin his guilty plea on seven felony charges.

Judge Louis Kaplan will hear from the plaintiffs and attorneys for SBF in one of the last times the former FTX CEO will appear in person as part of the criminal charges in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The sentencing hearing could cover the case that began in November 2022 with the FTX collapse and continued with Bankman-Fried's arrest, extradition, trial and conviction.

In the year In November 2023, a jury found SBF guilty of charges including wire fraud, securities fraud, commodity fraud and money laundering. The ex-CEO's lawyers are proposing a 6.5-year prison sentence in their first sentencing proposal for SBF's role in helping FTX investors gain access to millions of dollars.

The seven felony charges carry a maximum sentence of 110 years. Prosecutors suggested Banman-Fried serve 40 to 50 years to “reflect the seriousness of the defendant's crimes,” but the decision will depend on Judge Kaplan's interpretation of the case and consideration of victims and affected parties.

“I think you're going to see a sentence that says I'm going to be disabled for 30 years [SBF] As Mark Binney, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York and a partner at the Red Smith law firm, told Cointelegraph — it might be more. “There's a big disagreement between the government and defense about the number of losses here – what the actual amount of losses is, because that's a big driver of the policy.”

Binney's sentencing guidelines ask Judge Kaplan to consider the money lost during FTX's failure, rather than any repayment plan the company offered in bankruptcy proceedings. A proposed plan would pay FTX users for lost crypto to fiat based on the November 2022 price – many have suggested that this would cause them to miss out on the recent rise in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) and other tokens.

“My whole life has been destroyed,” one unnamed FTX user with two children told the court in a victim impact statement. “I didn't agree with the risk SBF took with my money.”

Related: Crypto users weigh in on Sam Bankman-Fried's jail time ahead of sentencing

The Bankuman-Fried case is largely new in the digital asset space, with a full trial and conviction. Silk Road marketplace creator Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to two life sentences without the possibility of parole in 2015. Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to more than 11 years for exaggerating or making fraudulent claims about the company's blood-diagnostic technology. .

In the crypto world, former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao pleaded guilty to one felony charge related to the crypto exchange's failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program and is scheduled to be sentenced in April. Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky is set to go on trial in September, accused of defrauding and misleading customers.

I don't think we'll see it. [CZ’s] “The cases were so impactful because they were so different,” Binney said. “The Mashinsky case, now that you have the same defense attorney representing SBF and both in the Southern District of New York, could have major ramifications. They're not exactly the same, though […] Of course Mashinsky will watch.

Bankuman-Fried's sentencing hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. on March 28 in New York, making his first appearance in court after waiving the conflict of interest for his attorneys. It is unclear whether the SBF family is present.

Magazine: ‘A Little Shiny' Mashinsky Serves Less Jail Time Than SBF: Inner City Press, X Hall of Flame