DOJ’s Proposed 50-Year Sentence for Sam Bankman-Fried ‘Disturbing,’ FTX Founder’s Lawyers Say

Sam
Bankman-Fried’s
defense
team
pushed
back
against
what
it
called
the
“disturbing”
sentencing
memorandum
filed
by
the
Department
of
Justice
last
week
in
a
new
letter,
saying
the
DOJ
was
making
the
FTX
founder
out
to
be
someone
he
was
not.

“With
marked
hostility,
the
memorandum
distorts
reality
to
support
its
precious
‘loss’
narrative
and
casts
Sam
as
a
depraved
super-villain;
it
attributes
to
him
dark
and
megalomaniacal
motives
that
fly
in
the
face
of
the
record;
it
makes
apocalyptic
prophecies
of
recidivism;
and
it
adopts
a
medieval
view
of
punishment
to
reach
what
amounts
to
a
death-in-prison
sentencing
recommendation,”
Tuesday’s
filing
said.
“That
is
not
justice.”

On
Friday,
prosecutors
urged
District
Judge
Lewis
Kaplan

to
impose
a
sentence
of
40
to
50
years,
arguing
that
Bankman-Fried
had
been
greedy
and
his
efforts
to
resolve
FTX’s
bankruptcy
didn’t
help.
As
supporting
evidence,
they
included
various
word
documents
he
authored,
victim
impact
statements
from
FTX
customers
and
other
documents.

Read
all
of



CoinDesk’s
coverage
here.

The
defense
had
previously
argued
that
the
former
FTX
CEO
should

spend
no
more
than
6.5
years
in
prison,
after
his
conviction
last
November
on
fraud
and
conspiracy
charges.

Bankman-Fried
tried
to
help
the
bankruptcy
estate,
Tuesday’s
filing
said,
but
he
was
“rebuffed”
by
the
bankruptcy
managers.

As
evidence,
the
defense
included
additional
documents
Bankman-Fried
wrote,
including
what
appear
to
be
possible
draft
public
statements
he
might
make
about
how
FTX
wound
up
in
bankruptcy.

The
defense
also
said
Bankman-Fried
poses
no
risk
of
recidivism.

Another
exhibit,
meant
to
demonstrate
Bankman-Fried’s
earnest
efforts
to
bring
the
exchange
out
of
bankruptcy,
includes
a
message
he
sent
to
former
FTX
General
Counsel
Ryne
Miller.
The
DOJ
had
previously
used
this
message
as
evidence
in
a
successful
bid
to
revoke
Bankman-Fried’s
bond
for
witness
tampering.

“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,”
the
filing
said.
“That
is
a
horrifying
interpretation
of
specific
deterrence.”

Bankman-Fried
will
be
sentenced
on
March
28.