The sentence for Sam Bankman-Fried is 25 years in prison and the confiscation of billions in assets.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX platform, was sentenced to 300 months (25 years) in prison on seven charges of conspiracy and fraud.

In addition to the lengthy prison sentence, Bankman-Fried will also be required to relinquish ownership of assets valued at $11 billion to compensate the victims.

Bankman-Fried was arrested last year following the collapse of the FTX platform he managed, resulting in the loss of billions of dollars from user deposits.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX platform, has been sentenced to 300 months, equivalent to 25 years, for seven charges of conspiracy and fraud following the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange. The judge sentenced him to 240 months for four of the charges, along with 60 months for two other charges, in addition to ordering the confiscation of over $11 billion, as recommended by the prosecutors.

Bankman-Fried faced a total potential sentence of up to 110 years, but the prosecution sought a sentence ranging from 40 to 50 years for the convicted fraudster in November of last year. While Bankman-Fried's defense team attempted to reduce the prison time to just six and a half years, the judge had a different opinion, ruling that 25 years was the appropriate length of the sentence. Bankman-Fried will be in his mid-sixties upon release (if he completes his sentence).

In summarizing the trial, the judge stated that Bankman-Fried was aware of the risk to the FTX platform, had no right to use customer funds, and was well aware of the wrongdoing he was committing. The judge continued, saying that Bankman-Fried justified his actions by betting on expected value, balancing the cost of capture against the cost of escaping punishment, and treating the matter as if it were a game.

Before announcing the verdict, the judge described the defense's claims of compensating individuals as speculative, revealing that FTX customers lost $8 billion and that Bankman-Fried attempted to manipulate witnesses, perjure himself, and provide false testimony upon learning of the missing billions. Given that the closest former officials at FTX testified against Bankman-Fried in his trial, his hope of avoiding conviction was extremely slim.

Despite the surge in the value of FTX's cryptocurrency holdings, especially its stake in the AI company Anthropic, the judge did not see mere compensation of victims for their money as sufficient punishment, stating, "A thief who flees with his stolen goods to Las Vegas and gambles and wins using the stolen money does not deserve a reduced sentence by allocating his gains to fully repay what he stole or part of it upon his capture."

During his trial, co-conspirators with Bankman-Fried testified that the FTX platform falsified numbers to make the exchange appear safer than it was and granted secret privileges to Bankman-Fried's affiliated investment firm, Alameda Research, allowing it access to FTX customer funds.

Bankman-Fried co-founded the FTX platform in 2019, which quickly became one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, valued at $32 billion before collapsing due to its inability to meet depositors' withdrawal requests. As bankruptcy proceedings were initiated, the massive fraud operation was uncovered.