Sam Bankman-Fried: What’s next for FTX founder, friends, and family of crypto fraudster?

Three of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s closest friends helped federal prosecutors put the final nail in his coffin in one of the largest fraud trials in the country’s history. 

Now that the former crypto king has been found guilty of seven federal charges stemming from the stunning collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange and affiliated hedge fund, what’s in store for the former friends who helped bring him down? How much time is Bankman-Fried looking at behind bars, and what’s next for him as well as his parents, who are tangled in the mess?

SAM BANKMAN-FRIED FOUND GUILTY OF FRAUD: FTX FOUNDER FACING 100 YEARS IN PRISON

When will Bankman-Fried be sentenced? 

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan set Bankman-Fried’s sentencing for March 28, 2024. 

How much prison time will Bankman-Fried get? 

While most white-collar criminals end up receiving only a fraction of the prison time allowed under federal law, prosecutors may argue that Bankman-Fried should get the max, 110 years, because his crimes affected thousands of people and he showed very little remorse at his trial.

They may also point to the case of another well-known fraudster, Bernie Madoff, who was sentenced by Judge Denny Chin on June 29, 2009, to 150 years in prison. Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor, told Forbes he would be “surprised” if Bankman-Fried received a sentence of less than 25 years. Madoff died behind bars in 2021 at 82.

In a 2007 article about corporate crime, Kaplan called “crimes committed by white collar criminals out of a studied calculation of likely costs and benefits of engaging in the criminal behavior perhaps are especially reprehensible.”

Will Bankman-Fried appeal? 

Bankman-Fried will likely ask the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review his case and the rulings Kaplan made against him before and during the trial. 

His attorney, Mark Cohen, vowed the case would continue and that he would “vigorously fight the charges” following Thursday night’s guilty verdict.

What about his friends and fellow cohorts? 

The government could not have made its case against Bankman-Fried without the cooperation of those in his close knit-circle, which included Caroline Ellison, a former girlfriend who ran the crypto hedge fund Alameda Research; FTX co-founder Nishad Singh, who attended the same Silicon Valley prep school as Bankman-Fried and was close friends with his younger brother, Gabriel Bankman-Fried; and Gary Wang, who met Bankman-Fried at math camp when they were in high school and went on to become college roommates.

Wang, Singh, and Ellison, who used to be Bankman-Fried’s girlfriend, all pleaded guilty to similar charges and worked with prosecutors in their case against Bankman-Fried.

The trio will most likely be sentenced after their former friend and will likely get no or very little prison time for their testimony, Bloomberg reported. Prosecutors are expected to submit a letter to the judge outlining their degrees of cooperation. While the judge isn’t handcuffed to anything the government recommends as punishment, they usually go along with it to encourage witnesses to testify.

What’s the March trial about? 

Bankman-Fried is scheduled to stand trial in March on charges of bribing Chinese officials to unfreeze $1 billion funds as well as his alleged role in making illegal donations to Capitol Hill lawmakers to buy their loyalty and influence cryptocurrency regulation.

What’s going on with his parents? 

Bankman-Fried’s parents, two legal professors from Standford Law School, are being sued by FTX, which filed for bankruptcy last year. Lawyers are trying to claw back millions of dollars in cash and gifts, including a $16.4 million villa in the Bahamas where FTX was headquartered. 

The civil lawsuit against Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman alleged they helped their son run his crypto empire and got a lot of money and perks to do it too. 

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“Bankman and Fried wielded their influence and status as Bankman-Fried’s parents to enrich themselves at the expense of the FTX Group,” the plaintiffs wrote. 

Bankman-Fried’s parents showed up to court every day. After their son’s guilty verdict was delivered to a packed courtroom, his mother put her head in her hands and stifled tears, according to the New York Times. Bankman-Fried nodded at his parents as he left the courtroom.