FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer asks judge to reject 100-year recommended sentence

By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer says a recommended sentence of 100 years in prison for the FTX founder is “grotesque” and “barbaric” for cryptocurrency crimes. Bankman-Fried lawyer Marc Mukasey filed presentence arguments late Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, seeking leniency. He wrote that the long sentence recommended by the court’s Probation office was improperly calculated. On March 28, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan will sentence the man prosecutors say cheated investors and customers of at least $10 billion in businesses he controlled from 2017 through 2022. His FTX trading platform collapsed in November 2022. He was brought to the United States from the Bahamas for trial and convicted in November of fraud and conspiracy charges.