FTX founder SBF asks for a 6.5-year sentence, tells prison guards to invest in Solana

The legal counsel for former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried filed a memo in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York requesting the judge issue a prison sentence of between five and a quarter and six and a half years. SBF is facing a maximum of 110 years after a jury found him guilty of multiple counts of fraud and money laundering in November 2023.

SBF was indicted on two counts of wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of securities fraud, one count of commodities fraud conspiracy and one count of money laundering conspiracy. Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is overseeing the SBF case, is scheduled to announce sentencing on March 28.

While federal prosecutors are expected to submit their sentencing recommendations on March 15, the Pre-sentence Investigation Report (PSR) has recommended a 100-year sentence for the former FTX CEO.

FTX lawyers argued that the PSR proposed 100-year sentence is barbaric, as SBF is a first-time offender with no past criminal records, who was joined in the conduct “by at least four other culpable individuals, in a matter where victims are poised to recover — were always poised to recover — a hundred cents on the dollar.”

The filing weighed on the harm to customers, lenders and investors, which is zero, as the FTX bankruptcy estate is expected to fully repay customers. The legal counsel also cited numerous letters submitted by friends and family strongly supporting a lenient sentence.

SBF has been locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, since summer 2023. Several stories from his jail time have surfaced over the months, from trading mackerel for a haircut to being extorted for protection. Now, another tale from his prison stay has surfaced, as The New York Times reports that SBF is offering trading and investment advice and asking prison guards to invest in Solana’s (SOL), a crypto token with which he has a long history.

FTX was once one of the largest crypto exchanges, valued at $32 billion in January 2022, before collapsing in November later that year. SBF was found guilty of mismanagement of $8 billion in customer funds and multiple other counts of fraud.

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