By
Bhushan Akolkar
April 26th, 2024
Sam Bankman-Fried’s attorneys believe that any sentence beyond a maximum of 5-6 years in prison would be inappropriate.
The legal team of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has strongly kicked against some of the cases that the US government is referencing in its sentencing memo. SBF was found guilty of fraud last year and currently awaits sentencing on March 28.
However, a recent court filing shows that the Department of Justice (DOJ) believes that the former FTX CEO should bag between 40-50 years of sentencing.
Bankman-Fried’s Legal Team Presented Technical Argument
In response to the DOJ, Bankman-Fried’s legal team has also published a letter aiming to show some parts of the prosecution’s arguments that might be inconsistent.
Earlier this week, the team had claimed that the DOJ might be intent on making their client a “supervillain”. Given this, the attorneys claim that any sentence beyond a maximum of 5-6 years in prison would be inappropriate.
Per the court filing, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers insist that the court take a cue from the US Supreme Court case, Kisor v. Wilkie. According to them, that case sets a precedence for determining whether punishment should be based on intended or actual loss. In this case, the defense team believes that FTX creditors may have suffered losses from its collapse but will surely recoup all.
If that be the case, the lawyers believe that that translates to zero harm or loss to customers. Hence the reason for their argument for a soft landing for Bankman-Fried as they seek a maximum sentence of 6.5 years in prison for him.
Interestingly, while the legal team argues that there were zero “losses” from FTX collapse in 2022, current CEO John J. Ray III claims otherwise. Ray says those claims are misleading and completely false.
It might be understandable why Ray says so given how FTX’s former customers are now the bankrupt exchange’s creditors. Over the past year and a half, Ray has been working tirelessly to help customers recover nearly 100% of their assets’ value as of November 2022 when the exchange crashed. Thanks to the recent rise in crypto values, the recoveries have been relatively swift. However, that is not to say that the same customers have not missed out on the recent upshoot that would have brought them massive gains if FTX hadn’t gone bankrupt.
It must be noted that Bankman Fried’s sentencing, which comes up in about a week, will not be all about losses. Judge Lewis Kaplan will have to factor in other elements including evidence, victim statements, and possible testimony before he can deliver a judgment.