Sam Bankman-Fried Doesn’t Want to Go to Prison for 100 Years

Sam
Bankman-Fried’s
new
legal
team
filed
his
sentencing
memo,
alongside
29
different
character
references
and
other
supporting
documents,
arguing
he
shouldn’t
face
a
lengthy
prison
term
after
his
conviction
last
November
on
two
fraud
and
five
conspiracy
charges.

You’re
reading
State
of
Crypto,
a
CoinDesk
newsletter
looking
at
the
intersection
of
cryptocurrency
and
government.


Click
here

to
sign
up
for
future
editions.

The
Presentence
Investigation
Report
–
a
recommendation
put
together
by
a
probation
officer
–
said
Sam
Bankman-Fried
should
spend
a
century
in
prison,
which
his
attorneys
called
“grotesque”
in
a
98-page
memo

suggesting
a
more
reasonable
range
of
5
to
6.5
years,
which
would
let
Bankman-Fried
return
“promptly
to
a
productive
role
in
society.”

Bankman-Fried
will
be
sentenced
on
March
28.
Ostensibly,
he
faces
as
many
as
115
years
in
prison,
though
attorneys
I
spoke
to
before
his
trial
began

estimated
that
10-20
years
seemed
more
likely.
We
now
know
that
a
probation
officer
recommended
100
years,
which
the
defense
team
also
called
“barbaric.”

Sam
Bankman-Fried
didn’t
mean
to
defraud
his
customers
and
feels
awful
that
they
were
hurt
–
but
he
didn’t
commit
the
“kind
of
heinous
conduct”
that
deserves
a
life
sentence,
his
attorneys
wrote
in

a
sentencing
memo.

“[Bankman-Fried’s]
personal
assets
are
gone,”
the
memo
said.
“Insufficient
funds
remain
even
for
payment
of
a
fine
…
Legal
proceedings
will
follow
him
for
the
rest
of
his
life.
The
ability
to
obtain
employment,
bank,
borrow,
travel,
and
adopt,
among
other
things,
may
be
implicated.
More
painful
for
Sam
is
that
the
companies
he
built
and
loved
–
and
which
had
so
much
lawful
success
and
even
more
potential
–
are
gone.
And
Sam
is
utterly
heartbroken
that
he
may
have
caused
collateral
damage
to
the
philanthropic
community
that
he
so
loved.”

A
footnote
said
the
probation
officer
who
put
the
presentence
report
together
“almost
entirely
dismissed”
the
defense’s
objections,
but
adopted
the
Department
of
Justice’s
positions.

Tuesday’s
filings
were
the
first
by
Bankman-Fried’s
new
legal
team,
after
his
trial
attorneys
–
led
by
Mark
Cohen
and
Christian
Everdell
–

stepped
down.
In
many
respects,
the
sentencing
document
is
exactly
what’s
to
be
expected:
A
memo
arguing
that
Bankman-Fried
didn’t
intend
to
cause
harm,
that
the
alleged
harms
were
not
as
severe
as
prosecutors
made
them
out
to
be
and
that
his
conviction
will
follow
him
for
the
rest
of
his
life,
banning
him
from
voting
or
holding
public
office.
The
high-profile
nature
of
his
case
also
means
he’s
likely
going
to
be
known
to
any
future
employers
or
wherever
else
he
ends
up.

Alongside
the
memo
itself,
the
attorneys
had
more
than
30
supporting
documents,
including
29
character
references
and
an
analysis
by
a
Bureau
of
Prisons
adviser
explaining
her
rationale
for
a
shorter
sentence
than
the
current
100-year
recommendation.

There
were
a
number
of
common
themes
among
many
of
the
letters:
Bankman-Fried
was
a
hard
worker,
he
wasn’t
malicious,
he
was
empathetic
towards
others
and
more.
Two

childhood
friends
wrote
about
Bankman-Fried
supporting
a
friend
after
their
father
passed
away.

He
even
received
support
from
fellow
effective
altruists
(the
philanthropic
philosophy
he
followed):
“Sam
took
great
personal
and
professional
risk
to
do
good
for
the
world
in
starting
a
company,
and
never
wavered
from
his
commitments
to
ethical
conduct;
to
this
day,
despite
present
circumstances,
I
cite
Sam
Bankman-Fried
as
an
unblemished
hero,
and
repeatedly
encourage
my
friends
to
imitate
his
character
and
example,”

wrote
Edward
Dodds.

Bankman-Fried’s
parents
and
brother
weighed
in,
saying
he
was
respectful
to
his
colleagues,

hard-working,
and
socially
awkward.
A
“draconian”
sentence
would
put
him
in
danger,

wrote
his
father.
While
in
prison,
he’s
tutored
fellow
inmates
and
found
attorneys
for
others,

his
mother
said.

A
somewhat
more
eyebrow-raising
letter
came
from
Bankman-Fried’s
cellmate,
former
New
York
Police
Department
officer

Carmine
Simpson.
Simpson
pleaded
guilty
to
one
charge
after
being
arrested
for
soliciting
minors.
In
his
letter,
he
wrote
that
he’s
grown
close
to
Bankman-Fried
and
can
attest
to
the
“remorse
and
regret”
the
FTX
founder
has
shown.

Of
course,
the
biggest
problem
the
argument
might
have
is
the
fact
that
Bankman-Fried
was
convicted
on
fraud
and
conspiracy
charges,
and
the
judge
sentencing
him
is
the
same
one
who
threw
him
in
jail
before
the
trial
began
and
then
oversaw
his
trial.

And
with
that
in
mind,
it
becomes
a
bit
more
difficult
to
see
the
defense’s
arguments
being
all
that
effective.
The
defense
argued
about
the
poor
conditions
at
the
Metropolitan
Detention
Center
in
an
argument
saying
he
“is
already
being
punished.”

Other
familiar
comments
include
that
he
worked
hard,
drove
a
cheap
car
(something
addressed
by
Caroline
Ellison)
and
that
he
didn’t
perjure
himself
in
court
(while
the
DOJ
didn’t
explicitly
claim
this,
prosecutors
implied
that
he
lied
under
oath
before
Congress).

The
defense
even
included

a
letter
from
a
psychiatrist
who
said
in
his
opinion,
Bankman-Fried
met
the
criteria
for
Autism
Spectrum
Disorder.

Judge
Lewis
Kaplan
–
who,
lest
we
forget,
listened
to
Bankman-Fried’s
own
testimony,
alongside
the
various
other
witnesses
last
year
–
will
have
to
decide
which
pieces
of
evidence
to
consider
and
how
to
weigh
it
all.

The
DOJ
is
scheduled
to
post
its
response
by
March
15.

And,
of
course,
after
that
happens,
we’ll
still
almost
certainly
see
an
appeal.
I’m
speculating
here,
but
details
like
the
footnote
above
and
the
concerns
about
Bankman-Fried’s
ability
to
work
on
his
defense
from
jail
will
likely
pop
up
when
that
gets
filed.

Read
more:



Sam
Bankman-Fried
Asks
for
6.5
Year
Prison
Term
After
Conviction
in
FTX
Collapse

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.

You
can
also
join
the
group
conversation
on

Telegram.

See
ya’ll
next
week!