Does Sam Bankman-Fried Deserve 50 Years in Prison?

The
stage
is
set
for
a
federal
judge
to
determine
how
long
Sam
Bankman-Fried
may
spend
in
prison.
The
U.S.
Department
of
Justice
and
defense
attorneys
have
now
both
filed
their
arguments,
as
well
as
statements
from
FTX
creditors
(from
the
prosecution)
and
Bankman-Fried’s
family
and
friends
(from
the
defense).

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Attorneys
with
both
the
defense
and
the
prosecution
have
now
filed
their
sentencing
memos
with
the
judge
overseeing
Sam
Bankman-Fried’s
case,
arguing
for
their
respective
sentences.
Alongside
the
briefs,
the
attorneys
have
also
filed
supporting
letters
from
the
people
around
FTX
and
Bankman-Fried,
presenting
emotional
arguments
on
top
of
their
legal
reasoning.

Bankman-Fried
will
return
to
court
next
week
for
sentencing.
The
U.S.
Department
of
Justice
wants
him
in
prison
for
at
least
four
decades;
the
defense
thinks
a
handful
of
years
is
a
sufficient
punishment
(and
that
the
DOJ’s
recommendation
is
bonkers).
Without
trying
to
guess
how
a
federal
judge
might
approach
this,
the
questions
he
might
look
at
include
Bankman-Fried’s
conduct,
how
FTX’s
customers
fared
and
–
of
course
–
the
evidence
presented
during
the
trial
itself.

District
Judge
Lewis
Kaplan
now
has
letters
from
Bankman-Fried’s
family,
former
FTX
employees,
former
FTX
customers
and
various
other
parties
when
he
rules
on
sentencing
next
week.

The
defense
and
DOJ
published
various
comments
to
try
and
convince
the
judge
to
support
either
a

relatively
light
6.5-year
or

lengthy
50-year
sentence.
Both
are
miles
away
from
the
100-year
sentence
that
the
Presentence
Investigation
Report
apparently
suggested.

I
wrote
about
the
defense’s
submissions

a
few
weeks
ago;
the
short
version
is
Bankman-Fried’s
attorneys
argue
he
is
remorseful
and
that
his
life
is
forever
changed
by
FTX’s
demise.
He
won’t
be
able
to
get
a
job
again
without
the
exchange
hovering
over
him,
the
defense
said.

Tough,
the
DOJ
said
last
Friday.
In
its
response
(which
the
defense
later
called
a
“disturbing”
recommendation),
the
DOJ
lambasted
the
32
year
old,
saying
he
deliberately
broke
the
law
and
his
efforts
to
try
and
fix
the
situation
may
even
have
made
things
worse.

On
Monday,
the
DOJ

filed
victim
impact
statements
from
former
FTX
customers
describing
the
effect
the
exchange’s
2022
collapse
had
on
their
finances,
health,
relationships
and
lives.
These
letters,
mostly
addressed
to
a
DOJ
officer,
the
judge
or
attorneys
with
a
law
firm
working
on
a
class
action
suit
against
the
company,
detailed
how
people
felt
about
the
exchange’s
bankruptcy
and
their
expected
bankruptcy
recoveries.

“The
emotional
toll
of
this
ordeal
has
been
overwhelming,”
one
writer,
whose
name
was
redacted,
said.

Many
of
these
statements
took
aim
at
one
argument
presented
by
the
defense:
that
FTX
customers
would
be
made
whole
after
the
exchange
wrapped
up
its
bankruptcy
process.

That’s
technically
true,
but
only
to
the
extent
that
these
customers
will
receive
the
dollar
value
of
their
crypto
holdings
as
of
November
2022,
and
not
the
value
they
might
otherwise
have
if
they
had
been
able
to
hold
onto
their
funds
through
the
crypto
market’s
huge
recent
price
rise,
many
of
the
creditors
said.

Even
there,
some
of
the
letters
said,
receiving
the
funds
back
won’t
make
up
for
the
year
and
a
half
the
customers
didn’t
have
access
to
their
money.

Contrast
these
arguments
with
the
defense’s
submissions,
which
were
mostly
character
references
from
Bankman-Fried’s
family,
former
colleagues,
friends
and
others
tied
to
him
either
through
donations
or
the
Effective
Altruism
movement.

Some
of
these
letters
addressed
Bankman-Fried’s
conduct
during
and
immediately
after
the
collapse
of
FTX,
while
others
focused
solely
on
the
Bankman-Fried
that
the
writers
knew.

The
letters
–
both
the
defense
and
the
prosecution
submissions
–
are
likely
to
be
taken
into
account
by
the
judge.

Other
factors
will
likely
include
Bankman-Fried’s
own
testimony
during
his
trial,
as
well
as
the
testimony
of
everyone
else.
The
DOJ
alleged
perjury
in
its
submission,
on
top
of
everything
else.

There’s
also
the
fact
that
the
case
seemed
so
clear-cut
to
the
jury
that
the
12
members
only
took
a
few
hours
to
agree
to
convict
on
all
seven
charges.

Other
questions
that
may
play
a
role:
will
Bankman-Fried
commit
fraud
again
if
he
re-enters
society?
How
will
he
comport
himself
outside
of
prison?

“At
age
32,
the
government
wants
to
break
Sam
Bankman-Fried.
They
ignore
completely
his
condition
and
vulnerabilities.
Instead,
they
urge,
menacingly,
that
the
sentence
imposed
must
‘disable’
him
even
from
‘being
in
a
position’
where
he
theoretically
‘could’
perpetrate
a
fraud,”

a
Tuesday
filing
from
the
defense
said.
“That
is
a
horrifying
interpretation
of
specific
deterrence.”

Bankman-Fried
is
scheduled
to
be
sentenced
on
March
28.

Earlier
this
month
was
Super
Tuesday
in
the
U.S.,
bringing
the
country
one
step
closer
to
the
general
election
this
November.
At
stake
are
roles
at
every
level
of
the
government:
Voters
will
decide
if
U.S.
President
Joe
Biden,
a
Democrat,
deserves
a
second
term
or
if
his
predecessor,
Republican
Donald
Trump,
should
return;
whether
Democrats
keep
the
Senate;
whether
Republicans
keep
the
House.
And
that’s
just
at
the
federal
level.

Despite
efforts
by
political
action
committees,
companies
and
people
in
the
crypto
industry,
it
so
far
seems
unlikely
that
crypto
issues
will,
on
their
own,
be
a
major
factor
for
voters
the
same
way
the
economy,
for
example,
might
be.
And
yet,
as
always,
whoever
wins
the
elections
could
define
the
policies
that
shape
the
crypto
industry’s
role
in
the
U.S.

And
this
is,
of
course,
true
everywhere:
The
U.S.,
European
Union,
U.K.,
India
–
there’s
a
lot
of
elections
happening
this
year.

As
CoinDesk
ramps
up
its
coverage
of
this
year’s
elections,
we
want
to
hear
from
you:
What
do
you
want
to
know
about
the
candidates
running
for
office?
Just
their
position
on
crypto?
Their
views
on
crypto-adjacent
issues
like
digital
privacy
or
personal
freedoms?
Reply
to
this
email
and
let
us
know!

If
you’ve
got
thoughts
or
questions
on
what
I
should
discuss
next
week
or
any
other
feedback
you’d
like
to
share,
feel
free
to
email
me
at

nik@coindesk.com
or
find
me
on
Twitter

@nikhileshde.

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can
also
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group
conversation
on

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See
ya’ll
next
week!