NEW YORK — Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer mentioned Tuesday {that a} really helpful sentence of 100 years in jail for the FTX founder by an arm of the court docket is “grotesque” and “barbaric” and a sentence of some years behind bars is acceptable for the cryptocurrency crimes that the California man nonetheless disputes.
In presentence arguments filed simply minutes earlier than a late Tuesday deadline in Manhattan federal court docket, legal professional Marc Mukasey mentioned a report by Probation officers improperly calculated federal sentencing tips to advocate a sentence simply 10 years in need of the utmost potential 110-year sentence.
A spokesperson for prosecutors, who will reply in court docket papers in mid-March, declined remark.
On March 28, Choose Lewis A. Kaplan will sentence the person prosecutors say cheated traders and clients of no less than $10 billion in companies he managed from 2017 by means of 2022.
His FTX buying and selling platform was perceived by some within the cryptocurrency business as a pioneer earlier than it collapsed into chapter 11 in November 2022, weeks earlier than he was delivered to the USA from the Bahamas for trial.
At a November trial, the 31-year-old man recognized for his informal clothes and wild hair, was convicted of fraud and conspiracy expenses.
Mukasey wrote Tuesday that the Probation workplace miscalculated federal sentencing tips to justify its suggestion. A correct sentence, Mukasey mentioned, could be based mostly on tips that might name for between 5 years and 6 1/2 years in jail.
When Bankman-Fried’s charitable works and his dedication to others are thought of, an acceptable sentence would return him “promptly to a productive position in society,” the lawyer mentioned.
Mukasey mentioned that the Probation workplace “recommends that the Courtroom sentence Sam to 100 years in jail. That suggestion is grotesque.”
“Sam is a 31-year-old, first-time, non-violent offender, who was joined within the conduct at problem by no less than 4 different culpable people, in a matter the place victims are poised to get better — had been at all times poised to get better—100 cents on the greenback,” Mukasey mentioned.
He known as on the choose to reject the “barbaric proposal.”
FTX was as soon as the world’s second-largest crypto trade and Bankman-Fried appeared to be flying excessive with the acquisition of Tremendous Bowl promoting and endorsement from celebrities together with comic Larry David and NFL famous person quarterback Tom Brady.
After his arrest, although, Bankman-Fried’s communications had been discovered by the choose to be makes an attempt to affect trial witnesses and he was jailed earlier than trial.